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sparklingandtwinkling · 6 days ago

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Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure! Origin Story

🧹💎🩷🐴💎💜🦄💎💚🌸💎🧸💎🧹

Many many millennia ago, Mother RaPaPa, the goddess of Magic and Nature and Vanessa’s younger sister, was born. Mother RaPaPa was born when Vanessa asked the Universe for someone to watch over and guide Mobius while she went to start her own world. The Universe sent her a small seed and instructed her to plant it on the other side of Mobius, away from Mobians. Vanessa, along with Diabolos and Crystalline, went to the other side of Mobius and planted the seed. From it grew a large tree that reached through the clouds, and a single flower bloomed before floating down to Vanessa.

The flower transformed into a pure white alicorn with pink-colored eyes and long light green hair adorned with yellow pearls and green leaves. She wore a long, white dress with a pink rose attached to each of her shoulders. Chains of green leaves and yellow pearls attached to the straps, as well as red roses and green leaves on the skirt along with a pink and golden bead chain. She had a golden necklace with a red jewel, green leaf-shaped earrings, and a green tiara with two large white flowers at the sides. At the center of the tiara, two green leaves are attached to a white flower, which also has a red jewel attached to it.

This new alicorn introduced herself as Mother RaPaPa, the Goddess of Magic and Nature and Vanessa's younger sister. She then explained her role and how she came to be. Vanessa hugged her and wished her good luck before the three went to tell the nearby Mobian village about their new guardian. As they leave Mobius, the land around the tree starts overflowing with flowers, later becoming known as the ocean of flowers.

Every year, Vanessa would visit Mobius to check on how things are doing and to add new kinds of Mobians. The tree that her sister had grown from and used to oversee Mobius became known as the Mother Tree. During one visit, Vanessa discovered that Mother RaPaPa had taken pity on the Mobians since they posed no magic whatsoever and blessed the Mobians with magic. This allowed them to build their own houses and settlements. Those with magic became known as Mythical Mobians (which would later be known as an extended breed until the Non-Magic World learns about the Magic World) since their appearance changed when they used magic.

At first, Vanessa was initially angry that Mother RaPaPa had acted without her consent, but she saw how happy the Mobians were and forgave her. However, she warned her sister that if anything happened to her, the magic would decrease within the land, and she would have to remove the Mother Tree. Since the Mother Tree is powering up half of Mobius’ source of magic and Mother RaPaPa is helping to power the other half, if she dies then the magic she is powering up disappears and the Mother Tree has to power up all of Mobius, which it can’t do. Because of this Vanessa would have to remove it from Mobius so it can create its own world and power up its magic. Mother RaPaPa knew this already because she had a hidden power, which she did not pass on to her successor. She had the power to see snipes of the future and had seen her world having to be separated. However, she had also seen a picture of the silhouettes of Cure Miracle and Cure Magical and had hope for this Pretty Cure.

Mother RaPaPa was very happy when she got to meet her nieces and nephew, Sapphire, Emerald, Peridot, Amethyst, and Topaz, when they were born and she loved them just as much as their mothers.

However, a great cataclysm occurred 4,558 years after Amethyst and Topaz’s birth, in the year 7984 BCE. A creature called Deusmast from the Neverending Chaos tore the sky apart to reach Mobius, his only desire was to swallow the whole world. When Vanessa saw this she went to destroy him but was stopped by Diabolos, who blocked her and told her that if she wanted to destroy his brother she would have to get past him.

As Deusmast got closer to Mobius, Mother RaPaPa stood in his path, telling him to turn away, but he refused to turn back. So Mother RaPaPa used her powers to defend Mobius. She fought and sealed the Neverending Chaos into the sun, but was badly wounded and dying fast. Vanessa had managed to blast Diabolos and injure him greatly after he got distracted by his anger at Deusmast’s sealment (no he does not care about him just his power like with all his Negative Boss).

Before she disappeared, Mother RaPaPa told the Mobians that since she was leaving, the world would be separated into a magic and non-magic world but promised that one day, the magic that carries all their magical prayers bound inside would come to them and would be known as Pretty Cure and their magic will be the bridge between these worlds. Her final words were, "The magic of a wish. The wish for a miracle connects us." She then disappeared from view.

Vanessa had heard her sister’s words and held her spirit close while crying. However, she didn’t have time to mourn, she had to act fast to save the Mother Tree to prevent its magic from being lost. She held the spirit over her head and pushed her magic through her sister’s to use her sister’s magic because that was the only way to control the magic of the Mother Tree.

She then created thirteen magic stones; the Linkle Stones. One of them, the Emerald Linkle Stone, the Linkle Stone of Life and Magic, had only her sister’s magic, which was evidenced by the pink rim. Five of them had gold rims which had a quarter of Mother RaPaPa’s magic while the rest was Vanessa’s magic but molded off her sister’s power, these stones are called the Guardian Lights. The last seven had silver rims and held half of Vanessa and half of Mother RaPaPa's magic, and they were called the Sustaining Lights. The Guardian Lights protect the Emerald Linkle Stone while the Sustaining Lights protect the Guardian Lights and support the Emerald Linkle Stone.

Vanessa also created a book to hold her sister's spirit, which would reincarnate into Ha-chan. She then puts all of Mobius to sleep and stands in front of the Mother Tree. Because Mother RaPaPa was gone, it was working overtime trying to give magic to the whole world. Vanessa holds up the book with the Linkle Stones floating around it with the Emerald in front of the book and uses the magic to redirect the flow of magic coming from the tree and drive it back into the tree. This causes everything grown from magic, the wand trees, for example, to die. Once all the magic is in the tree she unroots it and puts all the Mythical Mobians in bubbles before taking the tree and the Mythical Mobians to the edge of space, far away from Mobius before letting the tree float in space. Before long it starts to glow before a new world forms itself at its roots, becoming the world known today as the Magic World.

She then left the Mythical Mobians on the world and let both worlds wake up to find that the Non-Magic World had a faint memory of the Mythical Mobians but no memory of Mother RaPaPa while the Magic World had every memory and all mourned the great loss of friends, family, and their great and loving goddess. Vanessa kept the Linkle Stones and the book in bubbles in her workshop.

477 years later, in 7507 BCE, Ruby was born and is named not only her fur but also the beloved gem of her aunt.

8,000 years later, during the year 0016 BC, the Snailiner was invented due to a power boost from Vanessa. Vanessa still visits the world but does so in disguise, and everyone is aware of this fact. Even though traveling to the No-Magic World had been achieved it was apparent that if anyone traveled to the No-Magic World, they couldn't reveal their magical abilities. Therefore, they had to remain disguised and refrain from using their magic. While there have been some minor incidents, nothing significant has occurred (until a young purple unicorn travels to the No-Magic World).

Vanessa observed the Mythical Mobians as they traveled to Mobius before looking up at the Linkle Stones and wondering what they should be used for. Eventually, she received her answer from a rumor in the Magic World and her daughter, Sapphire's suggestion. There was a rumor in the Magic World that Vanessa had hidden the Linkle Stones around the land when she had visited them last, unfortunately, that was incorrect.

1,400 years later, Vanessa became interested in two young unicorn magicians, Kouchou and Dokurokushe, who were studying the Linkle Stones and Mother RaPaPa. She was interested in them because, unlike others who had tried to find the same thing, these two did not give up when they encountered the same obstacles. They soon started looking for the Emerald because they had discovered that a great calamity was coming and the only way to stop it was with the Emerald Linkle Stone. Vanessa at first thought nothing of it, there was no evil out there like how they described. After a while, she lost interest in the two magicians and stopped watching them, but Sapphire continued to observe them.

She noticed that after they failed to locate the Emerald, Kushe became desperate to find something to replace it and began to immerse himself in books on the dark arts. Sapphire watched as this obsession took over Kushe, but Vanessa refused to listen to her daughter's warnings. Eventually, Vanessa could no longer ignore the situation when Kushe used forbidden magic and turned himself into a skeleton. As a result of this transformation, he lost his horn but could still use magic. This use of Dark Magic resulted in Vanessa learning more about Deusmast. They learned that Deusmast is actually a fusion of the members of Never Ending Chaos, who are the manifestations of its physical powers, the brawns and brains of Deusmast. When Mother RaPaPa sealed Deusmast in the sun she also sealed and scattered the members, Labut, Shakince, Orba, and Benigyo. The four members are all Deusmast, and take on the form of large eyeball-like spheres, surrounding and controlling the more humanoid main "body". However, before being sealed, Orba scattered information to ensure he and the other agents, along with Deusmast's main body, could be revived by those who sought power for themselves. This led Kushe into the trap of creating dark magic as well as leading to the awakening of the members of Never Ending Chaos.

Vanessa realized that this was the great calamity that the two young magicians were studying and what her sister had predicted. Vanessa knew that it was Diabolos who had led Kushe down the path to find the dark arts books and had turned him into one of his Negative Bosses, an Illusion Boss, in reality. She needs to act quickly and hide the Linkle Stones and the book before Diabolos sends someone to steal them from her workshop.

One hundred years later Kouchou was made the headmaster of the Magic School and named the greatest magician of the Magic World. On that day, Vanessa scattered the Linkle Stones, except for the Diamond Linkle Stone which she split in two and turned into pendants and deactivated them. She had imbued them with different powers, the Guardian Lights allowed for transformation into different forms and using their corresponding attacks and the Sustaining Lights were for casting everyday spells with the Magic Wands. Vanessa had hoped that the future Cures would awaken her sister’s reincarnation, if they did they would have to raise her. It saddened her that she would not be a part of it.

Vanessa entrusted the book containing her sister's reincarnation to Kouchou, warning him of an impending great evil and that the Pretty Cure would come when it did. She asked him to guard the Linkle Smartbook and give it to them when the time was right. He smiled and told her he looked forward to it. Vanessa smiled and told him that he surprised her and for that, she would allow him to learn the secrets to his world’s Pretty Cure but only he could know, no one else. He just smiled at her and agreed.

About 480 years later in the year 1996 CE, Ruby (age 8,503) hides in her mother’s workshop while playing Hide-and-Seek with her siblings. While there she looks at all the items floating overhead. She then sees the deactivated Diamond Linkle Stone pendants and wants to get a closer look at them so she uses her magic to make the bubble holding them float down to her. Since the room has detected the magic of the royal family it comes to life. Once Ruby has the purple pendant in her hands she starts to look at it. Upon examining the pendant, the crystal ball shows a picture of a female unicorn and a male pegasus looking at a newborn female pegasus, but Ruby doesn't notice.

At that moment Vanessa walks in with Sapphire who is telling her that they can’t find Ruby before both see Ruby with the pendant. Sapphire yells her name causing her to spin around and throw the pendant…right into the crystal ball which teleports it a few feet away from the family. At that moment no one moves then Ruby starts crying while saying sorry over and over again. Her crying attracts the rest of the family and a shouting match ensues. Finally Crystalline gets everyone to quiet down before taking Ruby in her arms. Sapphire then apologizes for yelling and startling her and Vanessa tells all of them to not play in her workshop or use it as a hiding spot. Crystalline then leaves with Ruby and the rest of the children, minus Sapphire. Vanessa then turns back to the crystal ball and sees that the family has given it to the little pegasus. Sapphire then suggests taking it from her as it wouldn’t be so hard since they can make them forget it. Vanessa says that wouldn’t be necessary as this is perfect before telling her daughter to go get a teddy bear. Although confused she does so and watches as her mother imbues her magic in it. She then asks why giving the pendant to the wrong person is a good idea as her mother puts the powered-up bear in a bubble. Vanessa tells her that she will have to wait and see.

Six years later a unicorn is born into the family, that unicorn is one of the next Cures. When her wand is born Vanessa blesses it with a shooting star and Liz, the pegasus, gives her the purple pendant. Liz believes that Riko, the unicorn, will become a greater magician than her. In the No Magic World, a young female foul is born, and Vanessa swaps a regular teddy bear with the magical one in a store. It caught the eye of the foul's grandmother, who purchased it.

Thirteen years later, Mirai, the young foul, is told by her mother that she can pick out a pendant that she likes as a reward for helping her with housework. Vanessa secretly slips the pink Diamond Linkle Stone pendant into the box. It catches the girl's eyes and she takes it. Vanessa is responsible for growing the wand tree that produces Mirai's wand.

Also, I want to explain something else; so Unicorns use their horns for magic, while Mobian Unicorns, their horns are their source of magic but they still use wands. When they use magic their horns light up and if their horns are broken off they can’t use magic.

Pegasus wings are quite big and they get heavier the more they're out, so they keep them in ‘Feather’ or ‘Cloak’ mode to decrease their size and weight. Feather Mode is when the wings are decreased in size and can’t really move, they look like fake angel wings from the No Magic World. But if the pegasus doesn’t want them sticking out like a sore thumb they can turn them to Cloak Mode. This mode turns their wings into cloaks, and they can change the size and appearance of the cloak. While pegasus can fly, some prefer to use brooms for long-distance fights.

When Hu-chan is Kotoha, she is a Unicorn but when she is Cure Felice, she is an Alicorn. When she was young Hu-chan was a pony Mobian.

Mirai is a born horse Mobian but becomes a Pegasus when she transforms into Cure Miracle.

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Previously: 👸👑 | Next: 👩‍🍳🎂

#sonic the hedgehog #pretty cure #precure #mahou tsukai precure #mahou tsukai pretty cure #crossover #sonicure #Jewel Sonicure AU #information #backstory #cure miracle #cure magical #cure felice #mofurun #sth au

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zerolostwalks · 1 year ago

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Still got some writer's block, and my head hurts a bit today so I'm gonna ramble about an original story concept I've had floating around my head for a while now. (long post is long(is very long) so it's under the cut)

So to start my rambling this isn't so much a single story as a web of stories branching out from the same cataclysmic event.

The Creation of Mx: (Snippet written years and years ago)

Magic used to be a simpler affair even despite humans and the magic folk coexisting. Humans respected and were in awe of the power the magic folk possessed. Traditions and rules which were put into place generations ago were upheld and a balance was kept. However seeds of envy turned to greed and pride and the humans sought the power for their own. Countless conflicts and abuse caused the magic folk to create veils and barriers to protect what they had. Over time a new balance was found and the magic folk and humans lived separately. Sparse magic could be seen from time to time in the realm of humans. Performed by local magic folk and relegated as miracles. This new way of being was not as idyllic as the world once was. However it was a different peace that was deemed necessary. A peace destroyed by the creature Mx. Created from the countless outcries of human parents spanning generations to save and protect their children. Mx fractured the barriers and veils when they reached across time and space in a single action to not only help these parents but vanish away a number of these children for their own. No magic of this magnitude prior had ever been attempted before and Mx changed the world in ways no human or magic folk could predict because of it.

Mx's Kids:

Takes place from the point of view of the vanished children. The exact number is unknown but there were a near dozen of featured kids I wanted to be focused on, they al lived in the same hallway of their house(more on that later). Each kid was vanished right at the point of their untimely death. In a weird attempt to save them. Ideally, this would have been the most collaborative project as I would have personally wanted to seek out writers who would better be able to articuate the various cultures and time periods these children would have come from. Also, children is a bit loose. The 'kids' range from like a toddler to a couple of early twenty-somethings. As said the exact number is unknown and the only reason Mx didn't vanish EVERYONE away is that other powerful creatures somehow managed tto convince Mx to stop.

Mx (it/they)

As mentioned Mx was created from parental grief over the loss of their child. As such Mx sort of became a diety like figure over such grief. Mx loves all their children though it should be noted it is a very possesive over protective love (It literally destroyed the world) However while Mx does view all the kids as 'their children', The kids over the course of the story almost take up a parental/teacher role for Mx. Since Mx in a round about way is also the youngest of them all.

Eleanor Tan (she/her)

Eleanor is from some point in the future, the bulk of the world is unhabitable and people have moved to living in massive bio-domes. It's one of those theoretical utpoian that's really a dystopia when you examine it type of situations. Eleanor and her mother were never meant to be in a biodome, however her mother managed to somehow sneak her way into one and found work among the lower service staff. Eleanor attends school(mostly at the behest of her mother. Eleanor also has some serious anger issues and gets into frequent fights at school because she refuses to take shit from the kids who insist on bullying her. Eleanor vanished on her way home from school.

Marcus Campbell (he/him)

The only other of Mx's kid that I have named (mostly because he ends up either As Eleanor's roomate or living right next door to her, and also because the show up in another story together) Marcus is a bisexual(closeted) black teenage boy who grew up in suburbia in the early 90's. His dad is the head manager of a local chain grocery store. And is the oldest of three. Marcus barely managed to escape bullying but only by masking and presenting as the most upstanding citizen he could. And also putting up with some ridiculous shit. Marcus vanished one late weekend as he and some 'friends' wandered to close to a mugging.

The House

The house in a way also is it's own character. Mx tried to create it to be comfortable for all their children. When said children are a random mash up of different cultures spanning across all of time (with a few magic folk thrown in) that means it got a little messy. Magic and technology do not get along well with each other. Especially as tehcnology became more complicated. So certain areas of the house don't even function properly if Mx or the magic folk are too close. Not to mention the house itself also is alive and temperamental in its own way. Some part have indoor plumbing and electric lights, others require the occupants to carry candles and lanterns. The one laundry room Eleanor found with machine even close to what she is used to is down a series of log cabin halls and she needs a gas lantern as battery powered ones always die halfway down the hall, despite the machines also running on electricity. With so many kids and rooms (which Marcus is convinced change and shift depending on the modd of the house) it is easy to get lost. Marcus (and Eleanor, though only saracastically at first) talk to the house in hopes of getting the house to help them.

Fun Plot Points I remember(because I lost the actual written outline)

Eleanor and Marcus sneak out of the house at one point. Discovering Marcus's car is actually kept on the premises of wherever it is the house resides. They end up driving to the grocery store Mr. Campbell runs, and discover they stumbled into a parellel bubble where the Campbell family has no recollection of Marcus. This is where you learn that Mx didn't just destroy the universe. It created at least three splinter universes. One where the kids were succesfully vanished(there is evidence of their having lived there but no one can remember them). One where the kids in fact perished. Then a third described in the above snippet, where Mx's interference disrupted time and magic so badly that all of time and magic specacularly crashed into a world where it is somehow all trying to happen at once. Eleanor and Marcus continue to hop between these splinter worlds(It's how they end up in different stories). . .turns out they aren't the only ones who can jump between these splinter worlds. Though, not everyone can choose to.

The Wandering Soldier:

The fractures released magic back onto a world where time had suddenly compounded upon itself. Magic folk and humans alike found themselves in realms they did not belong. Money and power that humans had fabricated was rendered meaningless. New divisions formed between those desperately wishing to return to the world that was and those embracing the new chaos. Some comfort was brought on by the idea magic folk were still the holders of magic. This too would change. It started with a rumor as many things do. Whispers that magic had been passed directly from magic folk to humans. Small things really, bakers and artisans now able to imbue their creations with preternatural qualities. The magic folk laid these rumors to rest stating these humans merely had magic folk blood running through their veins. It hadn’t been unusual even before the fractures for romantic relations to occur between humans and magic folk. Certainly after the fractures these types of relations would only grow in number. There was no cause to worry that magic could be carried without magic folk blood

Additional Story Premise:

Two friends(I never got around to naming) find themselves in the wplinter world where all of time and magic have clashed together. It doesn't take long before they run into someone who proudly claims to be the world's worst bounty hunter. This person refuses to give them a name(it's part of their rules of magic). Instead they say to call them J(a temporary initial I gave them until I could figure out an actual name) J refuses to help the two friends out for any length of time. However despite all of their efforts they all keep running into eachother. So reluctantly J agrees to guide the two friends through the world, not guaranteeing to get them home because they don't know if that's even possible. Along the way there are a few thing that happen(including Marcus and Eleanor showing up and J mentioning "at this point those two are barely clinging to humanity themselves") the most important plots points are as follows:

Some important plot points:

They keep hearing tales about a heroic figure known only as the wandering soldier. J loathes this story and often argues with the various stroytellers over it. J also refuses to get into why they despise it Over the course of their travels the two friends and J find themselves getting closer and closer together. The three of them ending up together was always my end game. Though J has a bit of an emotional breakdown when they realize. There are more plot points but before that, let's get some backstory elements

The Rules of Magic according to J

Words are powerful, use wisely. A name is the most powerful word. Nothing is free. Favors don’t exist. Magic isn’t nice. (not exactly a rule of magic but still one of their rules) don't make close connections that may be used against you

The Legend of the Wandering Soldier(A summary)

When the world first broke, there were those who desperatly clung for power. Some were so desperate they hunted down the magic folk, demanding they either help them get and keep their power or perish. Among the chaos a single soldier arose and protected the magic folk, seeking nothing in return. In gratitude the magic folk granted the wandering soldier a wish they may use later.

Plot Points Continued

Now there are those that believe the wandering soldier is magic folk themselves and seek to capture and get the wandering soldier under their control. It comes to light that J's employer believes that one of the two friends is the wandering soldier (something to do with how weird time and magic behave) And when the two friends are threatened over it J finally reveal that they're actually the wandering soldier (shock and awe, this twist would have been laid out better in actual stroytelling but is really obvious when presented like this).

The Wandering Soldier Tale, from J's perspective

J was one of the unlucky ones who was dragged into this splinter world. In their confusion and desperation they agreed to work for what would become their lifelong employer. Turns out their employer imbued all their contracts with magic, that basically made all those who signed themselves away to be unable to disobey him among other things. J's saving grace is they didn't sign their full name, or their signature was sloppy enough that you could only read part of it. So they have some power to disobey and wander how they like. One day when actually following orders they were given a gun and told along with a larger group to go and clear away some buildings. NO talk of negotiating just clear the buildings of everything. Well, when J encountered people in the houses, J got them out and away from the other currently mindless killing machines. When asked how they could repay J, J said something that would forever haunt them. Let's just say you'll owe me one. (or something of similar sentiment) Poor choice of words considering J just spoke them to a group of families of magic folk. Who told other magic folk. Eventually the magic of all the unspoken favors settled on J and almost any wish, whether she wanted it or not was granted. Invincibility, immortality, among others but the most noticeable. J constantly wears an enchanted bracer on her wrist to attempt to contain all this unfettered magic. It mostly works. Though at this point the magic has become so infused in them that their practically magic folk themself. (They blister their hands up severely when trying to free one of the two friends from an iron net that dragged them underwater. Though the blisters do clear fairly quickly)

More on J(they/she)

J is currently a powder keg of untapped power. She wears an enchanted leather bracer which has helped keep the magic under control, and her humanity in check. This band is losing potency as her ‘favors’ slowly corrupt her humanity. J can use her favors by offering a favor to someone else, sometimes unknowingly. This doesn’t always work out as some of these favors are requested to be done by her, which has led to quicker corruption. This has led her to be hesitant to offer outright help. Often she’ll help if no one knows who she is. When J does eventually start trying to purposefully use her powers she finds it easiest to channel energy through something else, typically but not exclusively music. If J was created in D+D she’d more than likely be dual classing rogue and bard.

I think I'll end my rambling there for now. I do have another story that ties into this series. Bound, which is from the perspective of a Splinter World where Magic became visible after the succesful vanishing of one of the children, but time stayed whole.

#thinking out loud #writing #original writing #rambling mostly #worldbuilding and story planning

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callivich · 4 years ago

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I really love the idea of Lip having to take Ian and Mickey home after their anniversary party, so I wrote a little something.

This references a previous ficlet where Lip has an inappropriate dream about Mickey, so adults only please!

Thanks to @udontfuckangie for the advice RE: babies in car seats in ambulances! This was originally going to have Tami drive the ambulance with Freddie but yeah, not safe. So, I had to change things - therefore let’s assume the ambulance is fine parked outside the Alibi for a night. Also, the song is “Hot Girl” by Megan Thee Stallion.

Lip gets into the front seat of his and Tami’s car to find Mickey leaning through the gap, half in the front of the car and half in the back, fiddling with the radio. He flicks through the different stations until he finds something he wants to listen to. Lip wants to shove him backwards and tell him to sit the fuck down, but...fuck, it’s their wedding anniversary. So, he’ll allow it.

“All the hot girls make it pop, pop, pop, bad bitches with the bag say ah ya ya”

“Fucking love this song.” Mickey shouts, turning the volume up, the bass vibrating through the car. He scrambles back awkwardly, elbowing Lip in the side, so that he’s sitting in the back seat. Ian laughs like this is the most hilarious thing that he’s ever seen. They both nod their heads in time to the rhythm, singing the chorus loudly.

Lip shakes his head, if there’s one thing he hates about being sober it’s dealing with drunk people, but, he reminds himself it’s their wedding anniversary and, goddamn, do they deserve to be carefree and happy. And they are feeling very carefree and happy right now. And also very drunk. So much so, it was decided that they should leave the ambulance outside the Albi and Lip would drive them home, before coming back to the bar to get Tami and Fred. It’s not that late, and Freddie is sleeping soundly so he leaves Tami to enjoy the party for a bit longer.

The song ends and Lip quickly turns down the volume so his eardrums aren’t destroyed.

“Play it again!” Mickey shouts, again, as if Lip isn’t sitting right in front of him.

“I can’t, it’s the radio.”

“Fuck you.”

He can hear Ian laughing again, like Mickey is the funniest person in the world.

“Put your seatbelts on.” Lip orders, cutting through the laughter.

“Fuck you.” Mickey replies, as Ian puts on his own seatbelt.

“Very creative, you just gonna repeat yourself all night? I’m not driving until you wear a seatbelt.” Lip sighs, as Ian’s words from earlier come back to haunt him - he’s feeling very much like a dad to Ian and Mickey right now.

“M’fine, just drive, bitch.” Mickey grumbles, punching the back of Lip’s seat.

“No.” Lip taps the steering wheel. “Seatbelt.”

“Here, I’ll do it.” Ian reaches across Mickey and pulls the seatbelt, clicking it into place after a few tries. “Gotta keep you safe.” He gently pats Mickey’s chest.

Lip rolls his eyes at the sappy, soft tone of Ian’s voice, he doesn’t know if he’ll ever get over hearing Ian speak like that to Mickey fucking Milkovich, as if he’s the most precious thing in the world. But, he supposes, to Ian he is. Still, it’s weird.

Checking one more time to see they are wearing seatbelts, he starts the car and wishes for no traffic and an easy ride to the West Side.

“You liked the surprise?” Mickey asks Ian.

“Loved it.”

“I got you good.”

“Yeah, you did. Really thought you’d forgotten.”

“But I didn’t!”

“Fucking love you so much.”

“Love you too.”

And then the inevitable making out starts, and the car is filled with the sounds of sloppy kissing, breathy ‘yeah’s, and some verging on pornographic sounding moaning.

“Wanna suck you off.” Mickey whispers, thankfully loud enough for Lip to hear so he can put a stop to that before it happens. He reaches one arm behind and pushes blindly at Mickey’s head.

“No you’re not, Mickey. I’m serious, sit back.” He pulls his arm back, when he hears Mickey huffing and swearing under his breath. He checks the rear view mirror, and Mickey is glaring at him but sitting upright.

“It’s our fucking wedding anniversary.” Mickey punches the back of Lip’s seat again.

“I know, but you aren’t going to suck my brother off in the backseat of my car. That just isn’t going to happen.” Lip takes a deep breath, goddamn, Mickey is a pain in the ass when he’s drunk, and even more so than usual tonight. Probably down to him being so pleased at pulling off the surprise. And Lip gets that - Ian looked completely astonished when he’d walked into the party. Ian is drunker than Lip’s seen him in a long while - he doesn’t usually drink that much because of his meds, but once in awhile, during a special occasion like this, he lets loose. And it’s kinda nice to see? Because Ian is a sweet, sappy and very silly drunk - there’s something endearing about his behaviour. Lip likes seeing him carefree like this. He doesn’t feel the same way about Mickey, but then, he’s never really found Mickey that endearing.

Lip hears a slurred “c’mere” and some giggling and then there is more kissing. Which is fine, but anything more than that and he’s pulling this car over immediately. He really is in dad mode. He doesn’t want to spoil all their fun, he just doesn’t want to be anywhere near their fun while they’re having it.

The drive seems to take forever, all to the soundtrack of two very in love husbands who are making out as if it’s the first time they’ve ever done it. Lip can’t lie to himself, he’s a little jealous. He’d love a night like this with Tami - just the two of them, happy and silly and able to make out like teenagers. But that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. Especially if she’s pregnant again. That’s a thought for another day though. Right now he needs to concentrate on Ian and Mickey.

He was hoping to just drop them off, but Lip realises, as he pulls into the apartment car park, that isn’t going to work. Because the first thing Ian says as the car comes to a stop is “let’s go swimming!”

“Yeah! Let’s fuck in the pool!” Mickey agrees excitedly, pulling on the car door and failing to open it.

Lip realises he needs to make sure they get to their apartment before they get themselves in trouble. He has visions of them being found floating face down in the pool, so he helps them both out of the car and firmly steers them towards the entrance to the apartment block.

“No swimming. You two are way too fucked up for that.” He ushers them through the open door into a well lit corridor, lined with doors to apartments and other doors to what he guesses are the offices and maintenance for the building.

“You just.....you just don’t wanna see Mickey without a shirt. In case you get all excited...again.” Ian is grinning, his face flushed.

“What?” Mickey barks, suddenly very interested in the handle of a door which he yanks up and down. There’s a sign that reads ‘private’ and it’s obviously locked but Mickey continues to yank at it for some reason Lip can’t fathom.

“He had a sex dream about you.” Ian is attempting to whisper, but it’s loud, oh so loud in the empty hallway. “I’m not supposed to say because it’s a secret.”

“Ian. What the fuck?” Lip sighs, exasperated.

“Ugh, gross.” Mickey gives up on trying to open the locked door, and turns to Lip with a disgusted look on his face. “Don’t fucking dream about me like that.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose. It was a fucking dream.” Lip realises his mistake as soon as the words come out of his mouth.

“It sure was!” Ian is still grinning. “A fucking dream. Where you fucked Mickey!” He bursts into laughter at his own joke, leaning against the wall.

Mickey still has that disgusted look on his face. “As if I would ever let you....” He shakes his head. “Fucking gross. I love Ian. Only wanna get fucked by Ian.”

Christ, Lip thinks, he needs to get them to their apartment, he doesn’t want to hear anymore of this kind of talk.

Mickey has taken Ian’s hands in his own, and Ian’s looking at Mickey like what he just said was very romantic. “Yeah, Lip, you can’t have him. He’s mine. My husband.”

“It was a dream. It doesn’t mean anything. I definitely do not want to have sex with Mickey. Ok? Let’s just get you two to your apartment. Now.” Lip pushes them firmly, and they stumble forward, still holding hands.

“Good. Besides...if I was...if I was single. Sure as fuck wouldn’t want to fuck you.....jabby.”

Lip frowns, “How do you know about that?”

“Oh, me and Tami....we talk. Gotta complain about you Gallaghers.”

“Jesus Christ. You two are friends now?”

“Yeah.” Mickey laughs. “Guess so.”

“Jabby!” Ian shouts gleefully, running slightly behind in the conversation, but with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what ‘jabby’ refers to.

“And you told him? Great.”

“Course I did, it was fucking funny.”

“It’s ok.” Ian pats Lip on the shoulder, trying to be reassuring. “I’m sure you’ll get better with practice.” Mickey lets out what Lip can only describe as a cackle.

“Jesus Christ, that was one time and it was a one off.” They are finally, finally, at the elevators and he practically punches the up button. He’s hasn’t been here before but he remembers Ian saying their apartment was on the second floor, so he trusts that’s right.

“In you go.” He herds them into the elevator and presses the ‘2’ button. And once again, they are on each other, furiously kissing. Lip thinks the elevator is moving much to slowly. He hits the ‘2’ button again. Mercifully, the elevator doors soon open on the second floor. But neither Mickey or Ian has noticed and Lip grabs Ian by the back of his coat and pulls him out, Mickey stumbling after him.

“Hey, hands off.” Mickey grabs for Ian, who Lip is dragging behind him as he purposefully strides down the corridor. He has to get them inside, he can’t take much more of this.

“He’s stealing me, Mickey!” Ian laughs, “Help! Help!” His voice echoes much too loudly around the corridor.

“I’ll...save you!” Mickey manages to spit out between laughs, almost doubling over.

“You can have him back when we get to your place? Ok.” Lip turns and looks over his shoulder. “Just come on Mickey, follow us.”

A door they are passing suddenly swings open, and a very annoyed older lady is standing there, cell phone in hand. “Everything alright? I heard someone say they needed help?”

“No, no. Everything’s fine.” Lip smiles, trying to look respectable. Which is hard because Ian and Mickey are giggling, red-faced and stumbling about. “They....they’ve just had a bit too much to drink and I’m helping them get home.”

“It’s our wedding anniversary!” Ian yells, throwing his arms in the air.

The woman looks distinctly unimpressed. “That’s very nice. But it’s late, you know. You can’t go around shouting for help if you don’t need it. Especially at this time of night!”

“Listen lady, if my husband-”

Lip interrupts before Mickey can finish whatever threat he’s about to make, “They know, and they’re very sorry. And I’m gonna make sure they are quiet right now.” He grabs Ian’s hand and then Mickey’s and uses all his strength to get them to start walking, as the woman shuts her door with one more disapproving glare. “Come on. Home. Now. Please.”

They get to the door of the apartment Lip thought they would never reach. “Keys?”

Ian frowns, as if this question is a difficult math problem on a test he didn’t study for. “Uh.” He slaps one hand to his chest, then the other and then begins to rummage around in his jacket pockets. “Uh. Hmmm....”

Mickey isn’t much help either. “Maybe....here?” He says, grabbing Ian’s crotch, which causes Ian to smile and giggle and get distracted.

“Come on, Ian. Where are the keys?”

“Oh. Yeah. Keys.” He eventually produces a set from his jacket which has far too many pockets for Lip’s liking or for his tolerance at this time in this never ending evening. “Keys!”

“Good. Great.” Lip snatches them, opens the door, and shoves them, gently - it is their anniversary after all, no matter how fucking annoying they are being - through the door, slamming it shut behind him as he follows them in. He lets out a deep breath, it felt like they would never get here.

The apartment is nice, new, modern. The kind of place he never would have imagined them living in. In fact, even though it’s not furnished properly yet, Lip can see it’s a really nice place. And he’s pleased, he wants them, especially Ian, to live somewhere good like this. They deserve it.

They’re standing in the middle of the empty living room, holding one another, swaying slightly. Ian’s hands move down Mickey’s back to rest on his ass. Better get out of here, Lip thinks to himself.

“You guys need to drink some water.” He starts to rummage around the pristine kitchen until he finds two glasses that he recognises from home...or rather, what’s no longer home, not really - the Gallagher house. There’s only two glasses, clearly they haven’t been shopping yet, he fills them both with water.

“Alright, lovebirds, drink up!” Lip holds the glasses out, but neither of them move. They’re just staring at one another, silently, with small smiles on their faces. “Not gonna leave till you have some water.”

They both put one arm out at the same time, because of course they do. Lip hands them their water and waits until they’ve both drunk their whole glasses.

Satisfied that he’s done everything he can, he makes a move to leave. “I’m going. Enjoy the rest of your anniversary.”

Ian is caressing Mickey’s face with one hand, the other barely holding the glass which is dangling at his side. “Thanks, Lip. Love you bro.”

“Love you too, asshole.” He turns to leave, but fuck it....Mickey is his brother-in-law, and even though he’s a real pain in the ass, he makes Ian happy and that’s the most important thing, and also they’re probably too drunk to remember what he’s going to say.... “And you too, Mick.”

“Gross. Stop fucking fantasising about me, Philip.” Mickey grumbles, never taking his eyes of Ian.

Lip laughs, and let’s himself out, shutting the door behind him with a soft click.

#gallavich #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #shameless #gallavich fic #ficlet #as always feel free to continue this or add to it!!

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dinogoofy · 4 years ago

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Scorpion/GN!Reader.

Might kiss you, might rip out your guts.- part one

If you think you've read this before, you've read the earlier version! I've edited and changed enough of the story to need a new post about it, so here it is!

A short summary would be that this is a enemies to friends to lovers fic between a winged reader and Hanzo Hasashi. It will be split in 2 or 3 parts!

I also feel like I should clarify that Hanzo is only referred to as Scorpion because the reader does not know his name until the next part.

MAJOR TW FOR DESCRIPTIONS OF GORE

You could still remember it.

The arena. The smell of the blood, the stench of death. The bodies you saw wheeled out in masses of champions. Blood spattered weapons and walls. A picture was clear in your mind of the horror you felt. Of the anxiety and fear you had to push down every moment you remained in that coliseum. After all the training you had been through, nothing could've prepared you for this.

Being a renowned half breed, one of earthrelm and outworld, you and all your feathered glory was never under the radar of the Gods. After spending your life in earthrelm with your mother, Raiden believed that he could trust you. He had tracked you down and informed you of the details months earlier. Asked you to ready yourself the best you could, earthrealm couldn't lose this. And there you were, stalking the hallways before your battle.

You were nervous. Who wouldn't be? You were a hunter, not a fighter. You tracked your targets from the sky, taking them down before they had a chance to truly fight back. Your fighting style had never been meant for a closed in fight like this. You had almost told Raiden no for that reason, but with the fate of Earthrealm in as the prize, you couldn't do so with a clean conscience.

You remember the little girl, the servant who was being harassed by a separate contestant. One that was sure to die, if you got your hands on him at least. You had separated him from her, roughing him up just a bit so that he'd run off. Keeping at least one person out of harm's way. You had no idea of the powerful ally you had just made.

When the arena was ready for you, it was safe to say that it was more than a bit overwhelming. The cheers deafened you, the bright white outside blinding your first steps out of the dark corridors. You had splayed your wings wide, trying to make yourself look bigger than you were. You kept your head high as your enemy entered the arena.

When scorpion's form stalked into the arena, your stomach had dropped. He was confident. He knew he was going to win. You hoped you didn't look as afraid as you were. He was a renowned powerhouse. Strength, agility, he had it all. You were at a disadvantage, the huge wings that sprouted from your back becoming a curse. It was nothing you couldn't handle however, you had been in tighter spaces than this.

Hadn't you?

The fight started quickly. You weaved out of his range and dodged his attacks. It was wearing you down. After narrowly missing a particularly nasty kick, you knew you couldn't keep this up for forever. Lifting yourself into the air to try and get an upper hand was easy. You circled the arena around him, preparing to swoop down on him from a nose-dive when-

"GET OVER HERE!" The blade pierced though your right wing, through the muscle and into the bone. A scream of pain ripped through your throat as you were yanked back onto the ground.

A string of explicit words left your mouth as the blade was yanked out. You got your feet just in time for Scorpion to charge at you again. You couldn't dodge this time. He managed to land a punch, but when you blocked the second you had a horrific realization that you were too close to him. There was no chance to evade the attacks easily now, he could just yank you back to where you were. You blocked his blows as best you could, landing a few hits of your own, when he reached a hand out and grabbed your wing.

The excruciating pain had burned itself into your memory. His hand lit up in flames in a split second, charring your wings. You cried out in pain, trying to push him off of you, but he remained unmoveable. Your wing caught fire, and the flames tickled and singed the feathers of the other one.

The pain was all you could think about as your lifeline burned and faded, and you hardly noticed when his blade ripped through your throat. He dropped you to the floor, the fire starting to burn out all the while you gasped and gurgled for air.

It went black quicker than you expected. You had died. What a pitiful ending. Slaughtered in the arena, killed while fighting a pathetic fight. All your years of training, and still you weren't good enough.

The first breath that came back to you felt awful.

The room was quiet. Muffled cheers and screaming was heard from outside the dark brick walls. You brought a hand up to your throat, wincing from the pain that erupted from the charred wing as you stretched. The wound was closed. It was healed. Small, delicate hands steadied you as you sat up. Kind brown eyes watched you with concern. It was the servant girl from earlier. You tried to speak, but let out a horrendous series of coughs. You took a deep breath when they finally stopped.

"I… I thought I was… What happened?" She gave you a tight-lipped smile, showing you her blood covered hands. Runes were carved into her skin. The child had revived you with a magic you couldn't recognize. Your intreage turned to concern as you reached out for her. Holding her hands gently.

You never learned how she knew such powerful magic, and you didn't press her about it. In fact, she never spoke. The servant girl beckoned you to follow her, and led you through tunnels underneath the raging battlefield. Twist after turn, corridor after another, she stopped at a small, empty room.

Three, dead end entryways sat in the circular surroundings. The small girl sat down, giving you a smile, before plucking a sharp, glass dip pen out of her pockets. Out of all the horrors you had seen, your stomach churned and wanted to revolt at the sight of the kind girl cutting along her hands.

Stroke after stroke, she created runes on the backs of her hands, connected them to the ones on her palms and intertwined their meanings. When she had finished, she pocketed the pen again. You went to call out to her, to ask if she was alright, but the words died in your throat as she slammed her hands onto the floor.

With a bright flash, blood ran from her hands, trailing across the floor in dripping, intricate lines. The streams of blood ran straight up the corners of the doorways, lining all three. She sighed deeply and the center doorway lit up.

It was a portal. To home. To earthrealm.

It was beautiful. The chance to leave it all behind. To go home. To rest and recover and… and live.

You couldn't leave her like this. Not without a thank you. Not without something of worth. The girl looks up at you as you move to stand in front of her, hands glued to the floor. She smiles, and in a raspy, broken, almost intelligible string of noises, she speaks.

"F… feather…?" You teared up at the sorry sound of the sweet girl's voice. And knelt down to her, careful of the lines of blood. With a wince, you plucked a feather from your one, good wing, one the size of her forearm. You gently set it in her lap, but she shook her head.

You understood what she meant. With a shaky breath, you finally look over at your charred, destroyed wing. The pain was easy to ignore as long as you avoided the sight. But know there was no ignorance, no pretending it never happened. Your bad wing twitched in a motion that had you crying out in pain, but amongst the remaining, once soft down that fell, a single, black, ashy, sooty, burnt feather fell to your knees. You gingerly pick it up, and give her a skeptical look before setting it in her lap with the other. She smiles again, softly. And bows her head to you.

You turned to look back at her after you stepped through the portal. She finally stands, and bows to you again as the portal closes.

You never saw her again. In fact, you never saw Outworld again. But even though you didn't believe that a feather offering would ever be enough to thank her, you did not forsake her gift to you. It took years for your wing to heal, for the feathers to grow back. A patch of scarred skin still remained where Scorpion's hand had touched you, but with the addition of many different salves and medicines gifted to you by kind strangers, the fluffy, beautiful feathers returned to you. Flight, However. Was harder to take back.

You read almost every book you could find- created every exercise, every lesson you would need. But the burns left behind nerve damage along with the scars. It hurt to move the places that weren't numb. But you couldn't lose this. You couldn't lose your flight. It was the one thing you would refuse to give up. Eventually, and you did mean eventually, you had it back. You were a little wobbly, sure, but once you got up there… once you got in the sky, floating along the wind currents, relaxing in the cool air… It was almost like you have never lost the ability in the first place.

You never fought again. Nor did Raiden ever ask you too. You imagined he still believed that you were dead, but it was none of your concern anymore. You left that life behind. It took years to heal both emotionally and physically from what happened, and in the meantime you realized that the life you had before… it really wasn't for you. You didn't want that pain again. Didn't want the chance to have everything taken from you again.

You sighed, flipping onto your back to glide along with the wind, wingspan on full display. You had taken up traveling after you had learned to fly again. Hopping country to country, island to island, exploring the beauty of your own realm. But all this traveling had started to wear away at you. You longed for home. For your old friends. For family. But you refused to settle back down, traveling despite your homesickness. You'd find a place eventually, but only once you had seen the world. You didn't want to die a second time without experiencing all the lands had to offer.

This time, you didn't actually know where you were traveling to. You had just been cruising along the wind current, relaxing in the sky. The lands below were lush and beautiful, the sky a cloudy grey. A nice, cloudy day had always been your favorite to fly in. Days like these being a kind reminder of the days you were young, and energetic, and still learning the sky. You close your eyes, breathing in the fresh air, the tenseness in your back completely disappearing as you glide. For a moment, all you felt was peace.

Your heart rate spiked as a scream sounded off in the distance. Your wings faltered, and you bobbed in the air. Regaining your steady glide after a moment. You frantically searched the ground, shaky hands flexing into fists. You spotted a Cliffside, eyes immediately focusing in on the small form hanging onto the edge.

It became harder to focus. You started to panic at the sight of a small boy holding on for dear life. One of his hands slipped away, and you flinched, almost dropping into a dive by reflex, but you had to stop and think as his final hand remained.

You debated with yourself on if you could carry him, or if trying would kill you both. He would die from that kind of fall. You could die from that kind of fall. Could your bad wing take it? You didn't know, but you were running out of time. You dropped into a nosedive as his strength gave out.

The adrenaline almost put you into autopilot, the wind against your face becoming your only sensation. You hadn't gone this speed in years. The base of your bad wing started to tingle at the thought, reminding you of just how numb the rest of it was.

Stop. Calm down. You can do this.

Your panic cooled into a still determination as you grew closer. The boy faced up towards you, eyes wide and panicked and scared. You fought the wind with your arms, finally looping around his waist.

You caught the little boy just 20 feet from the ground. He clung onto your shirt tightly as you started to slow, wings struggling to lift you up after how fast you were falling, after a few, difficult, sore, flaps of your powerful wings, your weight slowly carried you into the gravelly ground below the cliff in a heavy thump. Your knees buckled at the landing, and you cradled the boy underneath you as you collapsed onto your elbows, panting for breath. Your wings surrounded the two of you like a limp cage.

Your bad wing twitched as you struggled to relax it again, and the soreness started to set in. Shit. You really should've practiced that dive in your self-taught physical therapy. Then again, you never thought you'd have to do that ever again.

"Are you ok?" A little voice asked. You opened your eyes to peer at the scared, worried face underneath you. You tried your best to muster a tired, pained smile, and sat up, letting him go. He didn't move far, crouching beside you. You realized that he couldn't have been much older than a six year old.

"I'm fine. I just need a moment…" You mumbled. "Where are your parents, kiddo?" He frowned for a moment, sitting down beside you with his knees underneath him.

"My grandmaster is somewhere in the forest, " He gestured towards the lush greenery of the field around him. "-but I think I might have to search for him." He said, glancing up at the cliff. You nodded in response. Grandmaster huh? You analyzed his clothes. A ninja in training maybe, you didn't know how you hadn't seen it before.

"Don't worry. I'll help you." You smiled up at him while splaying and retracting the bad wing back and forth. After a tense moment, you collected yourself. Making sure that your bag was still secure on you after the fall, and standing. The bad wing drooping limply while the other folded behind you. The boy stood with you, gazing at your wings with wide eyes. You chuckled at his curiosity, holding out a hand for him to take. He stared at it for a moment, and then back up at you.

"Well? Let's go find him." You nudged your hand forward again, and he smiled, taking your hand. You smiled back at him, trying hard not to grimace at the painful soreness of your wing.

Glancing around, you managed to pick out landmarks you had noticed while flying. Creating a path in your mind of how you could make it back up to that shady, tree covered cliff, you tugged the boys hand lightly. He quietly followed beside you as you walked.

You wandered away from the gravely clearing and into the forest around. Helping the child pick his way through the bushes. The short journey took only about twenty minutes. Mostly consisting of following the edges of the cliff until you could find a slope, and a path that he recognized.

He only let go of your hand when the two of you had to climb a steep side of the path. He quickly scaled it, turning towards you. You smiled up at him, stretching your wings to boost yourself up there out of reflex, but you stopped. Wincing at the soreness once again. The boy looked at you quizzically, and you shook your head at him. You slowly climbed the slope, and continued on. Soon enough, you were moving through the flat patch of shady, woody, land just before the Cliffside clearing. The boy took your hand again.

"Thank you." He said softly. You smiled at him again, squeezing his hand, but not speaking. "...I'm Takeda." You were taken aback for a second, and determined whether or nor you should be giving the child your name. It couldn't hurt, could it? Your voice cut clear through the silent woods as you spoke.

"My name is..."

You started to trail off as a man silently emerged from the brush on Takeda's side, knives at the ready for just a moment. His eyes locked with yours, and then widened. Shocked at the sight of you, his defense faltered a bit, but still remained. You, on the other hand, bristled. Huge wings defensively folding around you and the boy.

You wished it was rage that invoked such a reaction, but it was fear. Your eyes stinged with watery tears that you desperately tried to keep under control.

"Takeda, get back." You commanded, pulling him closer to you by his hand. Takeda tried to speak, but you couldn't hear what he was saying. The awful flashes of memory, the smell, the pain, all of it was running through your mind. Your bad wing twitched and almost retracted back into your body, but you painfully forced it still, desperate to protect Takeda.

"I'm not here to fight you, and I'm certainly not here to hurt Takeda." Scorpion spoke, gaze soft. He hesitated for a moment, but sheathed his weapons. He held his hands out to show you that there were no tricks. Bullshit. You didn't back down, keeping an angry stare set squarely on him. You could see it in his eyes that he knew that you weren't convinced. Takeda quickly put himself between you two, and you almost reached out to yank him back.

"This is my grandmaster," He spoke in a loud voice. Your eyes widened, flickering back and forth between him and Scorpion. It didn't seem like he was lying, he didn't seem like the kind of kid who would lie- but a child being trained by the deadliest member of the Shirai Ryu? You looked squarely at Scorpion with suspicion, looking him up and down. Your defensive demeanor never let down for a moment. You scowled at him, but when Takeda came back over to you, and reached up for your hands again…

You gave Scorpion a warning look, and relaxed your wings. Feathers smoothing out and wings folding behind your back. You squeezed Takeda's hands gently.

"I thought you were dead?" Scorpion's voice was clear and unwavering, but the question portrayed more than his voice would give away.

"I wonder why." You spit the words like venom. Your bad wing twitched again, this time it felt a little more painful than the twitches normally did. You hissed as you held it still. Takeda frowned, looking like he was about to tear up himself. Scorpion's face fell in a guilty look. This supposed new persona of his had to be a trick. Takeda turned to face his grandmaster. Speaking a few quiet words to him in Japanese that you didn't understand. You were to focused on the pain in your wing to care anyway.

You gazed fondly at the little boy, and sighed. It was clear to see that he was indeed Scorpion's student. You were no longer needed. You inwardly scolded yourself for becoming so attached to the boy so quickly. Sure, you had been longing for a connection… for a family… but this, this was not the place, nor the time.

You looked around, the clearing and cliffside edge was close enough that you could see it through the trees. In an almost dejected manner, you started to make your way over to it. The cliff would provide a great spot to make returning to the sky much easier.

"Will you be able to fly?" Takeda's voice called out to you. You stop in your tracks, turning just slightly so that you could see him, and stretched your wings. You winced as you did, the movement bringing back the soreness and pain you had glimpsed while climbing the slope earlier. You pressed your lips together, only glancing at Takeda before looking back at the sky that shone between the leaves.

If you couldn't leave, where would you go? You certainly couldn't stay here. Not with that Man. Not with Scorpion.

"The Shirai Ryu will extend our kindness to you, if you will accept it." You side-eyed Scorpion as he spoke. Fully prepared to decline before you saw the worried look on Takeda's face. You fully turned towards the two, wings low behind you.

"What does that 'kindness' entail exactly?" Your voice came out just above a whisper, but the malice behind it remained. Scorpion's serious face was a contrast to his student's.

"I am offering you shelter at the fire gardens until you have re-gained your strength." You looked at the boy, and then back at the man who killed you, and then at the sky. Who should you trust? Takeda? Or your own broken body? If you took a fall-

You took a deep breath, bit your fear back, and approached Scorpion and Takeda.

#scorpion x reader #hanzo hasashi #scorpion #scorpion imagines #mk scorpion #mkx #mk imagine #mk x reader #mortal kombat x reader #enemies to lovers #if you are still reading the tags i applaud you #part 2 is coming soon i promise

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just-dreaming-marvel · 4 years ago

Text

Out Of Time ~ 128

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 3,500ish

Summary: Tony works to save Dr. Strange and Y/N. The fugitive Avengers find their way to the compound. (gifs aren’t mine)

As the alien started guiding the piece of pavement towards the giant circular ship, the cloak that was around Strange tore itself free and flew the piece of pavement away.

“No!” The alien yelled, following after it.

Iron Man and Spider-Man were both fighting off the large alien in the nearby park Tony had crashed into, when the pavement piece flew passed. All Tony could see was the cloak and the alien following, so he knew it was Strange and that he was in trouble.

“Kid, that’s wizard,” Tony told Peter, blocking an attack. “Get on it.”

“On it!” Peter replied, quickly swinging in that direction.

Spider-Man chased after the skinny alien, who was floating speedily and upright on a small platform of burbling debris. Swinging in between the pavement and the alien, Peter tried to tie up the alien. The alien attacked back, throwing a billboard at Spider-Man.

“Not cool!” Peter responded.

The alien bent all the utility poles in the path of the feeing clock, finally snagging the garment and ripping it loose of the pavement. Spider-Man re-arrived on the scene, finally noticing something.

“Uh, Mr. Stark? We have a problem,” Peter’s nervous voice rang over the comms.

“What is is kid?” Tony replied, still fighting off the larger alien. “I’m kinda in the middle—“

“Both the wizard and Miss Rogers are unconscious on the floating piece of road.”

“What?! I’ll be right there!”

Peter swung down to the pavement and stood on it, careful to not step on Strange or Y/N. Bending down, he went to break Y/N free when a cone of blue light began to pull the group upwards. Spider-Man jumped off, grabbing onto the nearest light post while using his webbing to try and keep the piece of pavement in place. The alien quickly uprooted the light post, sending Dr. Strange, the cloak, Y/N, and Peter on their way to the circular ship.

“Uhhh, Mr. Stark?” Peter called again. “I’m being beamed up!”

“Hang on, kid!” Tony responded.

Before Tony could fly over there, the giant alien he was fighting pinned Tony to the ground by his hammer that doubled as a claw. As the giant jumped towards Iron Man, blades ready to end the fight, he was sent through a portal instead. The alien turned and leaped to return back through the portal, but Wong rapidly closed it and only the giant’s severed hand made its way back to the park. Bruce kicked the hand way with a noise of disgust. Iron Man then shook himself free of the weapon.

“Wong, you’re invited to my future wedding!” Tony exclaimed before beginning to fly towards the large ship. “Give me a little juice, FRIDAY.”

Iron Man’s foot thrusters suddenly morphed together into a single larger thruster, increasing his speed considerably.

Peter, not being able to keep hold of the pavement piece, was hanging onto the ship as it flew up into space. The alien and the piece of pavement with Strange and Y/N on it, had disappeared into the ship. Tony knew that Peter wasn’t going to be able to hold on or breathe for much longer.

“Unlock 17-A,” Tony ordered FRIDAY. “Pete, you gotta let go. I’m gonna catch you.”

“But you said save the wizard!” Peter responded. Gasping from lack of oxygen, Peter ripped off his mask. “I can’t breathe!”

“You’re too high up. You’re running out of air.”

“Yeah! That makes sense.”

Quickly, Peter passed out, free-falling, but not before the pod Tony had set out reached him. It attached itself to him, becoming a new suit. Now being able to breathe, Spider-Man landed on the bottom part of the ship.

“Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!” Peter commented.

“Happy trails, kid,” Tony replied. “FRIDAY, send him home.”

“Yep,” FRIDAY answered.

A large parachute extended from the new Spider-Man suit, spending him back towards earth.

“Oh, come on!” Peter shouted.

Iron Man latched onto the hull and cut a hole to board the ship, looking for wherever Strange and Y/N were taken.

“Boss, I have lifeforms detected in the ship,” FRIDAY informed. “One of them is most likely Agent Rogers.”

“Can you tell me if she’s breathing?”

A pause. “It appears she is.”

“Okay… I need you to—“

“I’m sorry, Boss, but we seem to be losing connection. We’re too far away from—“ Then FRIDAY”s line cut.

~~~

“Still no word from Vision?” The holographic image of Secretary Ross asked Rhodey. Rhodey was at the compound, dealing with the red tape.

“Satellites lost him somewhere over Edinburgh,” Rhodey replied.

“On a stolen Quinjet with four of the world's most wanted criminals.”

“You know they're only criminals because you've chosen to call them that, right, sir?”

“My God, Rhodes, your talent for horseshit rivals my own.”

“If it weren't for those Accords, Vision would've been right here.”

“I remember your signature on those papers, Colonel.”

“That's right. And I'm pretty sure I've paid for that.”

“You have second thoughts?”

“Not anymore.”

Suddenly, the fugitive Avengers (Sam, Wanda, Nat, and Steve) entered the room. Vision was being supported by Sam.

“Mr. Secretary,” Steve greeted, firmly.

“You got some nerve,” Ross said, hologram walking up to the Captain. “I’ll give you that.”

“You could use some of that right now,” Natasha replied.

“The world's on fire. And you think, all is forgiven?”

“I'm not looking for forgiveness. And I'm way past asking for permission,” Steve stated. “Earth just lost her best defender. So we're here to fight.” He took a step towards the hologram. “And if you wanna stand in our way… we’ll fight you too.”

Ross turned to Rhodes. “Arrest them.”

“All over it,” Rhodey responded before swiping off the hologram. “That’s a court-martial. It’s great to see you, Cap.”

The two men hugged. “You too, Rhodey,” Steve responded before Natasha went to hug Rhodey.

“Well. You guys really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple of years.”

“Yeah, well, the hotels weren’t exactly five star,” Sam commented.

“Uh, I think you look great,” Bruce nervously walked in from the opposite end of the room. “Uh… heh… Yeah. I’m back.”

“Hi, Bruce,” Nat greeted softly.

“Nat.”

“This is awkward,” Sam whispered.

Steve looked around. “Has anyone heard from Y/N?” He asked. “She’d want to know—“

“She’s missing too, Steve,” Bruce interrupted. “When I found Tony to get his help, Y/N was with him.”

“She was… she was with him? But Y/N’s a fugitive as well. How—“

“Mr. Stark and Miss Rogers have been sneaking around,” Vision cut Steve off.

“What?!” Steve and Rhodey exclaimed.

“It’s been happening for about a year now.”

“Miss Rogers has been seeing Boss and Sergeant Barnes,” FRIDAY clarified. “Trying to work through her feelings.”

“Thats… and she never…” Steve was at a loss for words.

“You didn’t try to reach out to her either, Cap,” Sam said. “You even knew she was staying in Wakanda. T’Challa told you. And you refused to reach out.”

“What happened?” Steve asked, looking at Bruce.

“She got captured,” Bruce explained. “Tony went after the ship to protect her and the Time Stone.”

“Why don’t we take this into the other room?” Rhodey suggested. “Perhaps get you guys something to drink.”

They went into the next room over, each standing or sitting around the room. Bruce explained more of what happened and the other group explained what happened to them.

“So we gotta assume they’re coming back, right?” Rhodey questioned.

“And they can clearly find us,” Wanda added.

“We need all hands on deck,” Bruce stated. “Where’s Clint?”

“After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal,” Nat answered. “It was too tough on their families, they're on house arrest.”

“Who’s Scott?”

“Ant-Man,” Steve replied.

“There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man? Okay, look… Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. And he is not gonna stop until he... he gets... Vision's Stone.”

“Well then, we have to protect it,” Nat stated.

“No, we have to destroy it,” Vision said. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something, very similar to its own signature, perhaps… its molecular integrity could fail.”

“And you, with it,” Wanda said. “We’re not having this conversation.”

“Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it.”

“That’s too high a price.”

Vision took Wanda’s face gently with both hands. “With Y/N off world, only you have the power to pay it.” Wanda walked away, distressed. “Thanos threatens half the Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him.”

“But it should,” Steve said, looking at Vision. “We don’t trade lives, Vision.”

“Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?”

“Because you might have a choice,” Bruce suggested. “Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. JARVIS, Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another.”

“You’re saying Vision isn’t just the Stone?” Wanda asked.

“I'm saying that if we take out the Stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts.”

“Can we do that?” Nat wondered.

“Not me. Not here.”

“You better find someone, and somewhere fast,” Rhodey said. “Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back.”

“I know somewhere,” Steve stated. “Wakanda. But someone first has to explain how Y/N has anything to do with the Stone.”

“70 years ago, the Tesseract chose her to be the protector of the Stones,” Vision explained, knowing the story due to housing the Mind Stone in his head. “That’s how she survived the fall. The Tesseract holds the Space Stone. Her powers come for each of the Stones, so she has the power to destroy the Stones, by channeling them. Y/N is able to wield and control the all the Stones.”

“What I showed her…” Wanda said quietly. “It was the Stone… Y/N’s the key to stopping Thanos.”

~~~

T’Challa already knew Y/N was missing before Steve had contacted him. With Okoye and two other guards, he made his way to Bucky’s place. Bucky was throwing bags onto a partly-filled car, being watched by two village children.

“You’ll have the Kingsgaurd, and the Dora Milaje have been alerted,” Okoye told T’Challa as they made their way towards Bucky’s small hut.

“And the Border Tribe?” T’Challa wondered.

“Those that are left.”

“Send word to the Jabari as well. M’Baku likes a good fight.”

“And what of this one?” Okoye looked at Bucky, just down the hill.

“This one may be tired of war. But the White Wolf has rested long enough.”

They made their way to Bucky. The guards set an elaborate and high-tech looking case down on the cart. They opened the lid to reveal the black and gold vibranium arm that Bucky had worn on Valentine’s Day.

Bucky sighed. “Where’s the fight?” He asked.

“On its way,” T’Challa answered. “And, Barnes…” The King glanced over at Okoye. “There’s something else. It’s about Y/N.”

Bucky was immediately alert. “What is it?”

“She’s missing.”

~~~

Dr. Strange was floating horizontally, face down, surrounded by dozens of long, glassy needles, as the alien interrogated him. Y/N was still unconscious, tied to the pavement off to the side.

“In all the time I’ve served Thanos, I’ve never failed him,” the alien told Dr. Strange. “If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan with the Time Stone still attached to your vaguely irritating person, there would be... judgement.” The needles began to contact Dr. Strange’s face, causing pain. “Give me… the Stone.”

Tony was watching, hiding from above. After receiving a tap on the arm, Tony turned around, hand up and ready to shoot. Tony stood stand after seeing that it was the cloak.

“Wow, you’re a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren’t you?” Tony commented.

“Yeah, un speaking of loyalty…”

Tony and the cloak turn, completely shocked, to see Peter dropping down from above.

“What the—“

“I know what you’re gonna say,” Peter interrupted, holding his hands out.

“You should not be here,” Tony stated.

“I was gonna go home—“

“I don’t wanna hear it.”

“But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you and Y/N on the way—”

“And now I gotta hear it.”

“—and I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it’s kinda your fault that I’m here.”

Both the cloak and Tony looked shocked, again. “What did you just say?”

“I take that back. And now I’m here in space.”

“Yeah.” Tony went to stand right in front of Peter. “Right where I don’t want you to be. This isn’t Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through.”

"No. I did think this through.”

“You could not have possibly thought this through.”

“It's just .. you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood.” Peter waited to get something from Tony, but nothing. “Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say.”

Tony let out a shaky breath. “Come on. We got a situation.”

Tony led Peter over to where they could see Dr. Strange, Y/N, and the alien. Peter crouched down to study the situation and the cloak leaned over his shoulder.

“See him down there?” Tony pointed to Dr. Strange. “He’s in trouble. And Y/N laying over there as well. What’s your plan? Go.”

“Um. Okay, okay… uh…” Peter stuttered, trying to think. He and the cloak popped back upright. “Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?”

~~~

Meanwhile, the Stones were talking to an unconscious Y/N.

“You can’t stop what’s coming… it will come, no matter what. You are being saved for the final battle… we will stop you from doing anything to prevent what needs to happen. What’s supposed to happen… someday, you will understand. There are things meant to be learned, things meant to happen, that we will not let you stop… use your powers wisely.”

She gasped quietly, waking up. Y/N quickly studied her surroundings. She could feel the Time Stone close before she noticed the predicament Dr. Strange was in. The glass spikes were pressing into Strange’s skin, causing him to let out a groan.

“Painful, aren’t they?” The alien taunted. Ebony Maw, the name was, Y/N finally getting inside his head. “They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them—“

There was a thump behind Maw, he turned to see Iron Man standing there. Tony’s hand repulsers were ready to fire. Y/N closed her eyes and focused on getting out of the utility ropes without making a big scene.

“—could end your friend’s life in an instant,” Maw continued.

“I gotta tell you, he’s not really my friend,” Tony responded. “Saving his life is more a professional courtesy.”

“Ah, yes. It’s the girl you’re really after.” Maw walked slowly towards Iron Man, beckoning very large metal objects to float behind him. “Too bad you’ve saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine.”

“Yeah, but the kid’s seen more movies.”

Iron Man fired a rocket from his shoulder which pierces the side of the ship to Maw’s right and began to suck everything out with depressurization, including Y/N. She quickly portaled herself to behind Tony, relieving herself from the binds. Maw was sucked out into space quickly. Dr. Strange was pulled loose of his bindings and the needles, also heading for the hole. The cloak quickly wrapped around Dr. Strange, trying to keep him inside. Strange and the cloak lost their grip, but Spider-Man shot a web strand, holding him in place. Or trying to.

The web broke, sending both Strange and Peter towards space. Suddenly, Peter’s suit releases metal spider-like arms, keeping him from being sucked out. Y/N quickly portaled Strange behind her.

“Yes!” Peter shouted, looking at the metal arms. “Wait, what are those?!”

Using the metal arms, Peter leaped to get to a safer place. Tony quickly sprayed nano-particles onto the hole to plug it. Spider-Man landed on his new legs, quickly retracted them. He found the cloak hovering next to him.

“Hey, we haven’t officially met,” Peter said, offering the cloak his hand. It ignored it, going straight to Strange. “Cool.”

Tony’s suit quickly disappeared back into the arc reactor as he rushed to Y/N. He grabbed onto her arms, examining her body for any injuries.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” He asked. Tony’s hands found a place on her cheeks. “Tell me you’re—“

“I’m fine, Tony,” she responded. “I’m fine.”

He gave her a kiss before pulling her in for a hug. “I was so worried.”

“I’m fine.” She hugged him back, breathing him in. “I’m fine.”

“We’ve gotta turn this ship around,” Strange stated.

“Yeah. Now he wants to run,” Tony replied. “Great plan.”

“No, I want to protect the Stone.”

Tony walked towards the front window, showing that they were speeding. “And I want you to thank me now. Go ahead, I’m listening.”

“For what? Nearly blasting me into space?”

“Who just saved your magical ass? Me.”

“Technically it was me,” Y/N added.

“I seriously don’t know how you fit your head into that helmet,” Strange scoffed.

“Admit it. You should have ducked out when I told you to,” Tony continued. “I tried to bench you. You refused.”

“I tried to bench your girlfriend, yet she refused as well. And, unlike everyone else in your life, I don’t work for you.”

“And due to that fact, we’re now in a flying doughnut billions of miles away from Earth with no backup.”

“I’m backup,” Peter said, raising his hand.

“No. You’re a stowaway.” Tony pointed his finger between himself and Strange. “The adults are talking.”

“I’m sorry, I’m confused as to the relationship here,” Strange said. “Wh—what is he, your ward?”

“No,” Peter responded. “I’m Peter, by the way.”

“Dr. Strange.”

“Oh, we're using our made-up names. Um... I'm Spider-Man, then."

“Peter,” Y/N muttered, rolling her eyes.

“This ship is self-correcting its course,” Tony stated. “Thing’s on autopilot.”

“Can we control it?” Strange asked, walking closer to Tony. “Fly us home.”

Tony, looking out in space, was lost in bad memories. Of going through the portal, of what Wanda showed him.

“Tony?” Y/N called softly, stepping towards him. She was concerned.

“Yeah?” He responded. He met her gaze briefly, quickly looking away cause it was not the time for him to be freaking out or for her to be reading him.

“Can you get us home?” Strange asked.

“Yeah. I heard you. I’m thinking… I’m not so sure we should.”

“What?” Y/N questioned. “Why?”

“Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos,” Strange stated. “I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here.”

Tony talked over to Strange. “No. It's you who doesn't understand, that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York and now he's back! And I don't know what to do. Because I am not sacrificing Y/N for the sake of the universe, for whatever the Stones have told her is her destiny. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?”

Strange was silent for a moment. “Alright, Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand... if it comes to saving you or the kid or the Time Stone... I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the fate of the universe depends on it.”

“Nice. Good. Moral compass. We're straight.” Tony stepped over to Peter, formally tapping each of Peter’s shoulders. “Alright kid. You’re an Avenger now.”

“You skipped me,” Y/N said, walking up to Strange.

“Excuse me?” He questioned.

“You said that if it came between saving Tony, Peter, or the Time Stone, that you’d choose the Time Stone… but what about me?”

“You and I both know, Y/N, that the Stones will not let you die until you have completed what they need you for. No matter what that may be.”

next chapter >

PLEASE FILL FREE TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND THEORIES!

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE QUESTIONS AND ONESHOTS ON THE MASTERLIST. MANY OF YOU HAVEN’T CHECKED OUT VALENTINE’S DAY, I SUGGEST YOU DO!

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

If you want to be added to the tag list, please dm me or send in an ask.

#tony stark x reader #bucky barnes x reader #stephen strange x reader #steve rogers x reader #the avengers x reader #avengers x reader #marvel x reader #tony stark imagine #bucky barnes imagine #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #iron man x reader #peter parker x reader #Avengers infinity war #infinity war #the infinity stones

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slimepuparibaba · 4 years ago

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ChiLumi | The Battle of Golden House

Golden House was what screwed my feelings over the most, if I'm being completely honest here. It hurts so damn much.

I don't wanna get into too much of the nitty-gritty before we start but here are some FYIs.

Childe temporarily joined Lumine's team after their little outing in Liyue. His reasoning to the Fatui was that it was to squeeze out information--in reality, he just wanted to spend time with Lumine.

The team was compromised of most of the characters, except for Venti, Klee, Bennett, Mona, Keqing, Qiqi, Jean, Diluc, Ningguang, Zhongli, and Xinyan. This took place BEFORE the 1.2 update happened!

Kaeya, Chongyun, Xiangling, and Barbara were the least suspicious of Childe as they spent more time around him and knew of his feelings towards Lumine--they are also the main team members in this fight.

All this is based off of my gameplay in Genshin!

Leading Up to the Battle

Childe and Lumine were very close. Weeks had passed and Childe had gotten to the point where he would use "Lumine" more often instead of "Traveler" or "ojou-chan". Childe would also call Lumine "Aster" due to her favorite flower being a Windwheel Aster

Kaeya was also the closest to the two of them and gave advice to both Lumine and Childe on how they should court each other

However, Childe was eventually reminded that the good times can't last forever. After he hard that Lumine visited the Jade Chamber that floated above Liyue, he remembered that he wasn't here to chat. His initial goal was to bring back the gnosis.

The night before the fight, as the team rested at an inn on the way to Liyue, Childe, cloakee by the darkness of night, left the group. He ditched the weapons that Lumine gave to him as well as his artifacts. If he held onto them during their destined battle, he knew he wouldn't be able to fulfill his duty.

Childe hesitated to leave, and yet, with a heavy heart, he left the Inn behind and stationed the Fatui to mobilize in Liyue.

The next morning, Lumine was shattered to see that Childe was gone.

Confrontation

The group heard of the Fatui being mobilized as well as the Adepti and the Qixing about to throw down, and Zhongli gave Lumine the tip that Childe was behind it. She really wanted to be able to talk it out with Childe and convince him he didn't need to go this far, but Zhongli himself stated that "sometimes, they won't understand that until everything is said and done."

Lumine was ready to confront Childe, but her heart was shaking and she felt uneasy. The uneasiness began to settle in though when she and the rest of the group approched the Exuvia and heard Childe's chilling laughter echo throughout the empty hall.

Lumine, hoping to resolve this without fighting, tried to talk to him.

"Childe, you don't have to do this! Don't you remember all the fun times we had? All of us? You're one of us, Childe! You don't have to be their pawn!"

Deep inside, Childe agreed. He knew full well that Lumine had a point--that he was merely being used as a pawn and he could easily discarded. He wanted to join Lumine, but...

"Monsters like the Fatui cannot be saved."

That was all that ran through his mind.

He wanted to agree; god knows he did. What he wouldn't give to leave the Fatui, resign as a Harbinger, and join everyone on that team on their adventures and protect everyone that he ever loved.

But he just couldn't do that.

Childe knew that Lumine wouldn't give up, no matter what, and he kept battling within himself. Sadly, though, his "loyalty" to the Tsaritsa got the better of him.

"Shut up!"

Lumine fell silent, and the entire group watched as Childe began to call her out. It pained him to do so, but his loyalty to the Tsaritsa practically demanded that he continue with this farce.

He said many things he truly wished he didn't say, many things he wanted to take back. But he was too far in. He stopped calling Lumine by her name, instead only calling her "Traveler", trying to distance himself. He mocked Lumine, as well as everyone else, calling them naïve for trusting a Fatui, of all people. Deep down, he was happy they trusted him. He wasn't upset with them, but himself for doing this.

Childe was waiting for Lumine to retort--to fight back and say something, and it looked like she was about to...

...until he said he was simply toying with Lumine's feelings.

Lumine didn't want to take that at face value, and Childe didn't want her to either. But, as soon as he said that, even though he may not have meant it, she shed a single tear.

Kaeya intervened, stating that Childe went too far. The Harbinger knew that... he knew that all too well. But, time could not rewind. He had already done enough damage.

He convinced himself that there was no turning back. If he was to fulfill his duty as a vassal of the Tsaritsa, he needed Lumine to hate him. He needed to crush all the lingering feelings that were held between the two of them. He needed to be the villain.

With that, he challenged Lumine to a battle. And thus, the Battle of Golden House was set in motion.

Phase 1 and 2: Childe Unleashed

He was completely ready for Lumine to throw everything at him, but instead, she stood still, not moving. Her eyes were devoid of the hatred he was hoping to see. It was... empty.

Instead, Kaeya, Chongyun, Xiangling, and Barbara hopped in. Noelle shielded the rest of the party, Lisa and Amber comforting Lumine, who was silently weeping in heartbreak. Everyone looked upon Childe with hatred, wondering why he would do such a thing.

Xiangling would crash into Childe, crossing blades and questioning why he was doing this. She believed he was happy with them, so why did they have to fight?

Chongyun, too, was upset. He may have come late to the party, but he saw how easily Childe fit in. In fact, while Chongyun was trying to train to get on par with the rest of the team, Childe would help out.

Barbara was one of the only rational ones, and she sensed there was more to the story. She tried to talk it out with Childe, saying that he didn't have to do this and there was no real reason they had to fight. She knew that Childe wasn't happy with this either.

But it was Kaeya that completely lost it.

People say that Kaeya is one of the chiller, cooler people in all of Teyvat. But, make no mistake... Kaeya is scary when he gets angered. When you push the wrong buttons, he will show absolutely no mercy.

While the three main fighters were throwing questions at him, trying to persuade him to stop it, Kaeya threw himself into the battle without second thought. He asked no questions--he only snarled at the one he once saw Lumine happy with.

Kaeya was supportive of Childe and Lumine when he saw how happy she was with him and how Childe seemed to be the same way. Kaeya understood Lumine didn't have her brother there like she used to, and he understood that same feeling, so he swore to try and be the brother that the both of them didn't have at the moment. Lumine was practically his little sister.

So when Childe betrayed her, when he broke her heart, Kaeya was ready to go absolutely apeshit.

Throughout the battle, even when Childe reached Phase 2, Kaeya would be the one throwing blow after blow at the Harbinger. It wasn't just physical hits, either. It included emotional daggers.

The two men would argue constantly, Kaeya threatening Childe and Childe laughing in response, mocking him.

"She trusted you--no, WE trusted you! I let the fact that you're a Fatui go because I thought you had some piece of humanity in you!"

"Then that was YOUR mistake! You just had to believe a Fatui all because, what? Your "surrogate sister" fell in love? Haha, don't make me laugh! Just because you didn't have a brother for half your life doesn't mean you need to project yourself onto the Traveler and become hers!"

The more their blades crossed, the more enraged Kaeya became. However, a third blade came into play and threw Kaeya's sword out of his hands.

It was Lumine.

Phase 3: Tartaglia's Foul Legacy

Lumine was standing still, her sword at her side. She stared at Childe with no emotion showing on her face. This was it, Childe thought. She finally hates me.

Childe held up his weapon, but before he could strike Kaeya and Lumine, she blocked it with her anemo skill, her feet digging into the floor as her geo skill kept her in place. Kaeya lept away, and all that was left on the battlefield was Childe and Lumine.

A large explosion of light occurred, but Childe simply appeared on the Exuvia, ready to grab the Gnosis. But when he discovered it wasn't there, he didn't know what to think.

Lumine stood still, and Childe wanted to end it there. But part of him delusionally screamed "No!", and instead pinned the blame on her.

It felt like Childe was slowly being torn apart on the inside. He wanted to stop it, apologize to Lumine and run away with her and their friends, but he needed to fulfill his duties.

In the end, Childe listened to his head. He unleashed his Foul Legacy transformation and destroyed the flooring below everyone, sending them to the lower platform.

Kaeya was going to step in, but Lumine game him a look. It was as if to say "This is between me and him." So, Kaeya backed off and retreated to the rest of the group.

Lumine and Tartaglia simply stared at each other. Tartaglia expected for Lumine to say something, but no words were spoken. Instead, she immediately rushed towards him.

Tartaglia expected to block it, ready to stop her in her tracks. He was ready to take her head-on and see her full power...

...then she drew two blades made of water.

Tartaglia was in shock. Lumine pulled a surprising move... she was using his weapon! It stunned him, even amazed him, but for some reason, it also broke his heart. He left behind the weapons he used when with Lumine's team, not wanting to use them in fear that it would stop him from using his full potential, but here they were... being used against them.

It was after she pulled those weapons out that Tartaglia's moves grew slower.

Many speculated this was because Tartaglia's armor was heavier and using up most of his power. However, Barbara understood. She saw the look in Childe's eyes when Lumine entered the arena. He seemed prideful, but his eyes said different. He, just like Lumine, didn't want to do this.

Tartaglia was holding back.

Tartaglia and Lumine kept clashing. Their powers were equal to each other, and Lumine kept switching between using her blade and the weapons once used by Childe himself. Even still, no words were exchanged. There was no expression on Lumine's face. Within the Golden House, all that could be heard was the sounds of blades clashing, lightning striking, wind howling, and water crashing.

The two of them fought hard. In the end, both were one hit away from being knocked out and losing. Tartaglia had one charged attack he had been storing up and was ready to unleash it.

"If I use it, she will obviously dodge it... and then she can beat me. Then, she will hate me like she was destined to."

Tartaglia lifted his blade into the air and, using his Delusion, summoned a large amount of Electro energy. It wasn't undodgable--in fact, Lumine could just jump back and strike him and the fight would end there.

Just as he was about to strike, however, Lumine instead rushed towards Tartaglia, rushing right past him. Instead of dodging, she ran straight into the attack. Tartaglia was shocked, staring at the Traveler being pierced by the lightning. Just as she was struck, she whispered softly the only words she had spoken throughout the entire fiasco...

"...if I knew it would've come to this, I wish I never fell in love with you."

Lumine, at last, fell.

Fallen

Childe dropped his weapon, staring at Lumine's body as it hit the ground. She was knocked out cold. He reached out his arm, only for Barbara to rush in and throw her arms out to her side, as if forbidding Childe to touch her.

Memories of the times that they spent together flowed through his mind. He couldn't move. He felt paralyzed. He wanted to pick up Lumine and apologize, say it was all a joke and he just wanted to test her strength, but he couldn't do that. He glabced at her body, lying on the cold floor, and understood.

He did this to her.

This was all his fault.

The words that Lumine said kept repeating in his head, echoing and resounding, practically taunting him. Just as he was caught in a trance, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

Kaeya stabbed him through his armor.

Childe, his Foul Legacy transformation fading, then collapsed on the ground, returning back to normal.

Paimon and Kaeya confronted Childe, who expected Lumine to be the one to get upset with him instead of the Calvary Knight. The Fatui Harbinger looked at Lumine, who was being healed by both Diona and Barbara. He felt like saying sorry, but the angry looks from everyone told him one thing, and one thing only.

"You're a liar. You never could've been saved in the first place."

"Monsters can never be saved."

Childe, feeling he had nothing left, lifelessly continued forth with the plan that he had formulated weeks before he had joined Lumine. He was still waiting for her to wake up and hug him, beg him not to, or at least just try and stop him. He wanted someone to tell him that he could change.

But no one did.

With a heavy heart and a false smile on his face, he summoned Osial and escaped from the Golden House. He felt no reason to stay there...

He was now a lost cause.

Kaeya, still angered by Childe, wanted to chase after him, but a weary Lumine told him to worry about Liyue instead. Kaeya protested, saying they should nip the issue in the bud, but Barbara agreed.

Not only that, but she knew that Childe wanted them to stop Osial. She could tell... she saw it in the saddened look on his face.

Departure

The group, after fully healing, ventured to the Golden Chamber and fought against Osial alongside the adepti and the Qixing. They succeeded, naturally, with the Golden Chamber sadly sacrificed. The Qixing became the ruling power of Liyue, with the Adepti stepping down.

In the end, however, the mystery of the Gnosis and it's whereabouts still remained. Thus, the team ventured to the Northland Bank.

It was there that they saw Zhongli, Signora, and Childe.

Childe saw Lumine and was about to congratulate her, but Kaeya stood in the way, and Signora gave Childe a dirty look. He realized that, truly, what was done couldn't be undone. He had to continue lying through his teeth, just as he always did.

Childe made a false apology, saying that he truly was just a pawn and just doing his job. But, truth was that he meant to say that he didn't want to do it, and that he wanted Lumine to scold him and steal him away from the Fatui. Even then, though, Lumine didn't look him in the eye and fell silent.

The answers to the entire "Rex Lapis murder mystery" were solved, and Signora gained the Geo Archon's Gnosis. With that out of the way, Signora commanded Childe to head back to Snezhnaya with her. Reluctantly, he followed.

But, just before he could leave, he waited at the door and for Signora to keep walking just out of hearing distance. When she did, Childe turned around and looked Lumine in the eye. He gave a sad smile, and said one last sentence to her.

"...Lumine... I... really hope you didn't mean what you said back there..."

Lumine, taken aback, had no words to say. He responded to what she said back at the Golden House... did that mean that he...?

Before she could try and ask, Childe left, walking out of her sight, never looking back.

From then on, Childe and Lumine weren't reunited. All that remained with the both of them was the memories of the time they spent together before the fateful battle that tore them apart.

...that is, until Childe's Story Mission.

may i just say that this entire thing broke me

bruh. childe. Why did u do that

;;;

also the blows he made to kaeya's pride

"i know you and diluc aint close, dont go projecting on lumine"

fucking christ dude you needed LUMINE to hate you, not the fake pirate dude!

#genshin impact #genshin #headcanon #chilumi #childe #tartaglia #ajax #genshin childe #genshin traveler #traveler #lumine #this one...#THIS ONE is angst #CHILDE WHY #SHE LO V E D YOU???#AAAAAAAA #it gets somewhat happier when teucer gets involved tho dw #just deal with the consequences of childe being fatui

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fonteyn · 4 years ago

Text

enter a king and a queen: chapter five (king caspian x reader)

Pairing: King Caspian x Queen of Calormen!Reader

Word Count: 8.4k

Rating: M (Mature)

Warnings: contains scenes with swearing, violence & character death.

CHAPTER ONE | CHAPTER TWO | CHAPTER THREE | CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER 6

My masterlist

A/n: Sorry for the long wait! My university classes came back and now I’m drowning in work. Also I created a playlist for this fic if anyone is interested. Either way my askbox is always open to talk about anything and everything. If you like this fic, I urge you to like & reblog it as it helps me a lot.

Tag list: @a-dorky-book-keeper @lilbabyhoneypot @charlesblackwood @aurora2238 @approved-by-dentists @sesamepancakes

One step.

Another.

And another after that.

Walking up the stone stairs of the tower, it became impossible to keep the feeling of pure dread from what awaited you at the top.

After months of battles, sweat, and blood. More blood than you had ever seen. Your army was able to form a siege, closing the perfect perimeter around his castle. And now, he had nowhere to hide. No way to run. He would be forced to face you, whether he liked it or not.

Once you reached the top of the stairs, everything would be over. A single strike, the war would be done.

A single strike and your people would be free.

A single strike and he’d be gone forever.

Behind you stood Lilyan, guarding your rearward, making sure the two of you weren’t caught by any surprises as you made the climb. She gripped the sword tightly, jaw set, and sweat dripping from her forehead. The armor she wore was heavy, yet she bore it like it weighed nothing.

Determination glinted in her eyes, one that hadn’t left her features ever since you had proposed this mission to her only two days earlier. Nevertheless, the months of fighting and food scarcity were still clear on her face as her cheeks were hollower than they had been at the beginning of your journey.

Reaching the top of the stairwell, you were met by a heavy wooden door adorned by strong metal hinges. You and Lilyan exchanged a look. You hadn’t expected to find anything blocking the pathway. If you weren’t able to open it, you’d have to try to find a way to break it, and doing so seemed like an impossible job if it were to be executed by solely the two of you.

You stared at her, silently requesting her opinion. She nodded, giving you the go-ahead. You had to at least try.

Your hand reached for the handle and pushed the door. Much to your surprise, it opened without any resistance. Your blood ran cold to the loud sounds of the hinges moving.

You frowned, what was the point of hiding then? Shit, was this all a trick?

Your steps were careful, one after the other as if you were not a person but a feather, floating your way into the chamber. Weightless and fearless, yet uncertainty seemed to be a constant in your mind as you were unable to get rid of that particular emotion, always in search of the catch in any situation, secretly terrified that you’d lead your troops into a trap.

That was until you saw him, a mere look and your entire body stopped dead in your tracks as if you were a little girl again who got caught stealing books from the library.

If your heart hadn’t been racing before, it soon enough felt as if you were going to spill all your guts. He looked smaller than you remembered and was thinner as well. No doubt the siege had taken a toll on him after all. His eyes, however, remained the same. Calm. Calculating. Ice cold.

“Father,” you exhaled almost in a whisper, your arrow pointing straight to his heart.

You had come fully prepared, painfully aware that you had no chance in beating him on hand to hand combat or even with a sword. You knew the only way to do this was with the safe distance of a bow and arrow between you, and the certainty of the object piercing his heart.

Behind him, an enormous hole had been carved by the catapulted stones your army had set around it, destroying, little by little, the defenses of the fortress. After he was gone, you would probably have to rebuild almost the entire palace. A step back and he’d suffer a fall from the highest tower in the castle.

He had nowhere to hide.

The wind had shifted that morning, making it so that it blew strong from the hole, cold drizzle its aggravating companion. He was trapped, and he knew it.

“You are surrounded,” you tried your best to keep your voice from trembling, but now with him finally in front of you and cold chilling your bones, it was almost an impossible task, “ The defenses of the fortress are down. Your army is defeated. It’s over.”

At that moment, there was much you had wanted to say, many things you desperately wanted answered to. Why did you do it? Why did you kill her? Why did you try to kill me? Why did you leave me? What have I done to make you stop loving me? Yet, in that single moment, all you could bring yourself to think about was how much you wanted to plead to him, feeling the urge to make him understand that surrender was his only choice. That any other move would simply end with his body dropping from that tower with an arrow stuck to his chest.

"It seems you finally won, my child”, he stated in the same tone of voice one would use to talk about the weather, seemingly unbothered by the threat of his life.

"No,” you growled, “not yet”, hateful tears threatened to spill from your eyes. "You will die by my hand today. You will die knowing that I won. You will go to hell and pay for everything you’ve done.”

“Well, of course,” he took a step forward, forcing you to take a step back, still not seeming to mind the threat on his life or the fact that his reign had ended the moment you walked through that door, “the only thing left is for you to make your final move.“

Once again, the little girl inside you insisted on appearing. The one who wanted answers. The one who missed her family. The one who wished she didn’t have to command an army and fight her own father.

"Father please…”, you pulled the string on your bow harder, an arrow ready to be fired, the tears trapped on your throat almost making you choke, “please don’t make me do this.”

A wicked smile formed on his face as he took a step back, right in the direction of a fall to his death.

You woke up with a jolt in your bed.

“Your majesty?” Khiara, one of your handmaidens, stood at the door of your room, a faint light breaking into it as she walked in carefully, “I…I heard you screaming, is everything alright?”

You rubbed your eyes, the room was still dark and you had no idea if it was morning or night.

“There’s no trouble at all,” you noticed how the sheets were moist with sweat. Great, that’s just what you needed. “Did I wake you?”

“Oh no, your majesty,” she sauntered over to the window, opening the blinds, “It’s already morning, I thought you might want to rest a little longer after all the events you’ve been attending lately, I imagined you could use some rest. Rose will bring your breakfast shortly.”

“Yes, thank you, I was very much in need of it,” your eyes still stung, chest hurting as you struggled to get out of your nightmare haze, “Could you do something for me, please, Khi?”

She blushed in the way she always did when you called her by her nickname. “Yes, of course.”

“Could you get Captain Lilyan to come to my chambers? I’m afraid I need to speak with her in private.”

“Right away, your majesty ”

You watched as she left the room.

Looking down at your hands, they were still shaking.

Soon enough, Rose appeared with a gorgeous tray of food for your first meal of the day. The arrangement containing some of your favorites, confirming your suspicion that Khiara wasn’t the only one who heard your screaming. You sighed loudly. The nightmares came and went. Sometimes there would be long periods where you didn’t have a single one, and then all of a sudden they were back. Interrupting your sleep. Haunting you at night. You no longer had hopes that they would ever go away completely, not after everything you saw.

Whilst eating your meal, you decided to take your time to get your bearings in order. Reading letters that had arrived from your brother and your council members, thankfully they didn’t report any incidents or emergencies that needed tending, only wishing you good luck on your travels.

You wrote down responses to all of them, losing yourself in words and duty, only stopping briefly to take a sip of tea or a bite from a toast. At some point, you got distracted staring at the beautiful flower that was included in your breakfast tray. A pink rose placed in a slim tall glass vase with the spikes still intact. You carefully reached for it, softly removing it from the case and bringing it up to your nose. It reminded you of your garden back home, the one your mother loved so much. But then it also brought back a memory from only a few weeks prior. When Caspian took you to that town nearby. His hand on the small of your back. You immediately recalled the words of the flower merchant. Why not give flowers to the beautiful lady who accompanies you?, he said. And then Caspian’s response by giving you that bouquet. All of that seemed like it had happened a million years ago.

A firm knock on the door broke your reverie.

“Come in,” you answered.

Lilyan’s head popped up at the door. “You requested my presence, your majesty.”

“Yes, Captain”, your hand motioned her closer, “please, come in.”

“Lady Khiara mentioned you’d like to speak privately to me. Is there something wrong?”, a frown clear on her face.

“No,” you shook your head, “it’s simply a subject that for now has to remain between the both of us.”

“I am starting to get a bit worried, my Queen.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, Lilyan, I’m just struggling with my words today.”

“Yes, I heard you had a…”, she paused, measuring her words carefully, “a difficult night, my lady.”

Your jaw clenched. So she heard it as well? It was no wonder by this point if the entire castle didn’t know about your troubled sleep. Shaking your head in denial, you chastised yourself. It was better to just go ahead and say what you wanted. Keeping measured words simply adding to a pointless mystery to it all, so you stared out the window as you found the strength to utter the words you had already expressed to Caspian before. Only this time, there was a finality to it. After you gave the order, you wouldn’t take it back.

“Lilyan, you stuck by my side in the darkest moments of my life and never questioned my ability to lead. You saved my life, over and over on the battlefield, and for that, I believe you know me better than almost anyone else in this world.”

“It’s been my honor, your majesty.”

“No, Captain,” you interrupted, “it’s been mine, to have someone like you by my side.”

She stared, worry clear in her eyes, wondering where were you going with this talk.

You let out an exhausted breath and for a moment she saw a glimpse of the very tired woman inside you come to light. She met you when you were only sixteen, a wild teenager fighting for her life. She had helped you in your training, taught you how to use a sword, supported you in the most difficult of times, watched as the years washed away your naiveté, and battled shaped a scared yet determined young girl into a woman, a leader, a queen.

However proud she felt of you, she often managed to see beneath the surface. Under the mask of the Queen of Calormen. Under the disguise of a caring leader. Under the pelt of confidence, you wore every day. And when she did, she often mourned for your lost teenage soul, the life you weren’t allowed to live because of the burden of reigning that had been passed down to you.

Lilyan knew that part of you wasn’t completely gone though, only remarkably repressed. She could, every once in a while see glimpses of that girl whenever you laughed at one of your brother’s jokes or simply every time you were with the narnian king. The one who’s engagement had just been announced this morning.

“I need to go home, Lilyan.”

“I know,” she answered, making you quickly turn your head towards her, a pained sympathetic expression clear on her features, “I know.”

Lady Helena’s voice once again resounded in your mind. Everybody sees the way you look at him. You cleared your throat and shifted on your seat, turning your body in Lilyan’s direction, hands intertwined on top of the table as you leaned closer.

“I found that there’s no place for me here, nothing else for me to do”, your tone of voice was softer this time, the first time you were brave enough to admit it out loud.

“So should I gather the crew for our departure?”

“Yes, but not all of us will be going this time around.”

You once again stared at her, measuring your next words.

“Rose and Khiara will stay”, you said.

“But they are your handmaidens, my queen,” she protested, “why would they not accompany you home?”.

You exhaled. “I have other plans for them.”

Lilyan sounded puzzled. “Would your grace be inclined to share?

“Captain, you have made many sacrifices, for your family, your friends, but mostly for our people. You fought alongside me when it mattered most and even in the bleakest of times, you never lost hope. Neither in Calormen nor me. I owe you much. My life, my throne, my honor. And yet here I stand in front of you, about to ask you to sacrifice yourself in service one more time.”

“What do you need me to do, your majesty?”

“Today, I ask that you stay.”

“Stay?”

“Yes,” you nodded, “I ask that you renounce your life in Calormen and stay here, in Narnia, as a diplomatic envoy. You have lived among them before, you know their customs and I believe that, after the latest events, you are the only person capable of keeping this alliance together.”

“Is something wrong, your grace? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“Unfortunately, there are things that I may never tell a single soul, which is another reason as to why I choose you for this task. You have proved to me that you understand. You have shown me before that you see more than you let on.”

You thought of Lord Bennet and his smug smile, happily wrapping his claws around Caspian’s throat as he prepared to marry Genevieve.

“You honor me, your grace.”

Lilyan’s eyes glistened with tears as she kneeled in front of you.

“No, you do not deserve this, to be away from home, but I need someone I can trust here.”

“I will serve you, as you need me.”

You smiled, finally letting yourself breathe easy since she came into the room. Leaving her here, as an emissary was the right thing to do. You had previously thought long and hard on how to go about the relationship between Narnia and Calormen as the years went by. You knew you couldn’t come around very often and were, especially after the past week’s events, worried about the stability of peace between the nations considering the trickery and suspicion of the Lords.

You knew that if the partnership were to ever become a burden to Narnia, some court members wouldn’t hesitate to cut you off and leave your people to the wolves and you couldn’t count on Caspian for everything, he wasn’t invincible to their pressure. If anything could prove that, it was the fact that he subdued himself to the Council in the wedding debacle. So you needed to be prepared for anything, eventually, if something were to happen and Calormen found itself needing Narnia’s help you had to make sure you had someone capable who could get the job done. Lilyan was your first and only choice.

She knew the narnians, spoke their language, was aware of customs and traditions, but also, she was restless. She knew when to speak up, when to play along, and more importantly, how to get people to listen to her.

Her presence would also serve as a reminder. It was common knowledge that she was by your side as you took the throne from your father. Her presence would show that calormenians will not give up without a fight and that if you were ever betrayed, consequences wouldn’t be far away.

“Inform the others of my decision,” you ordered, “and tell Lorian and Ian to seek out a ride for our departure, we leave tomorrow morning.”

The rest of your day was spent preparing for your voyage, finishing letters with ordering certain preparations to be done by your arrival. There was much to be done when you arrived. The Harvest Festival would soon be happening and you had big plans for celebrating, maybe that would cheer you up in the weeks to follow your departure.

Soon, the evening came and you requested dinner to be brought to your quarters. You felt strangely tired in a way you hadn’t felt in a long time, maybe it was the hassle of packing your bags and directing Ian and Lorian over organizing the crates of goods you were bringing home, though you didn’t think that was the answer. You didn’t feel necessarily tired physically, but more so emotionally and that strain could be pinpointed straight to the brown-haired king who lately seemed to take over your every waking thought.

After that kiss, you hadn’t seen him again and also weren’t exactly sure you wanted to. You had heard this morning that his engagement was announced, so in the end, your actions hadn’t changed anything. You had to admit that your heart dropped to your stomach when Khiara told you. It didn’t matter. It didn’t make any difference. There was a craving, a part of you that wanted to seek him out and do something - you weren’t sure what. But another piece of you also simply wanted to take a coward’s way out and take your leave without saying goodbye.

You’d regret it. You knew you would.

You were already dressed for bed though, in a nightgown that helped you stay fresh in such a warm stuffy night and the mere thought of changing clothes and going out to find him wasn’t an appealing one. What were you even supposed to say?

So you stayed in your chambers, carefully placing each and every item you brought along for the trip inside your trunk, stopping only for a moment to admire the pieces of fabric you had purchased once in the Narnian market.

As your fingers grazed the carefully woven gold threads of the fabric, you failed to listen to the sounds of the door hinges moving.

“I see you’ve already packed.”

Despite having your back to the door, Caspian’s voice was unmistakable. You turned around slowly and watched as he closed the door behind him. He seemed a bit nervous, distraught even as he swiftly walked around the room, avoiding your stare.

What in the world was he doing here? It was far too late for him to be wandering the halls, which meant he probably had come all this way to this particular wing of the castle with the sole purpose of seeing you. If anyone saw him coming in you were sure both of you would be in trouble, after all here he was, on the same day he announced his betrothal to the world, coming into another woman’s room late at night.

You slowly stepped away from him, leaning your back against the post of the bed, trying to avoid the possibility of crumbling in front of him while at the same time doing your best to put a brave face on.

“Well, my departure will be in the early morning.”

He kept himself a foot apart from you as you both stared at each other in silence.

He was also wearing his nightclothes, which included a simple linen shirt, open enough for you to be able to see the skin of his chest. His long hair was messy, very unlike the polished ponytails he had been sporting as of late as if he had tossed and turned on his bed before deciding to come your way.

“I heard you announced your betrothal,” you said matter of factly.

“Yes, two fortnights from now I should be married”, he kept a neutral expression afraid to let anything else come across. He still wasn’t keen on the idea. He didn’t know Lady Genevieve to any extent, but most of the Council Lords agreed that she was the most intelligent choice for a queen. Count yourself lucky, my liege, she’s rather beautiful, one of them had said. Caspian wasn’t blind, he recognized her looks and he also noticed how her eyes would linger on him in the few times they’d met. Regardless, the truth was, his heart wasn’t in it. It was a matter of duty.

Once again, silence permeated the room. A silence so loud it was almost palpable in the air, starting to weigh both of you down. He watched as the look in your eyes shifted and a daring look came across your face.

You dared him to try to explain himself, to tell you head on why had he come to you so late at night. Daring him to state his business. Daring him to either take a step further or leave at once. You couldn’t help but search for something in his eyes, a sign of what to do. A wave of uncertainty took over you.

“Caspian,” your voice, a half-hearted warning for him to watch his words. Out loud, the words sounded weak as he stepped in your direction. Whatever it was he wanted to say, it surely wouldn’t undo the damage already done to your relationship when you gave in to your feelings and kissed only a day earlier. Useless in the face of a moment that you had been replaying in your head whenever you let your mind wander.

And there was nothing you could do as you stood there, paralyzed when, this time, he was the one who reached for you, taking your face in his hands and molding his lips against yours, your tongues soon found each other as you devoured one another like two people who had been forever starved. He moaned into the kiss when your hands slowly buried themselves on his hair as if you had done it a million times before, and he pressed you harder against the bedpost, bringing your bodies together almost as if he wanted to become one.

You exhaled as he started peppering kisses all over your jawline, soon leaving a trail on your neck all the way down to your exposed shoulder. You had to bite your lower lip hard to keep yourself from making any obscene embarrassing noises.

In any other situation, you would be overthinking it. Making mental remarks about how wrong this was.

How absurd of him to come into your room, and then do this. Maybe you’d stop him and talk about how inappropriate it all was. How insidious. How irresponsible.

But all you could do was bring him closer and closer and closer, allowing your hands to touch him all over. His hair, his arms, his chest, and then melt over the feeling of his lips against your skin.

Everything was hot and cold at the same time and you felt as if you were going to burst. And at the same time that it felt like the culmination of everything, it also didn’t matter at all. Nothing else mattered when his lips graced your skin. Nothing else mattered when you grasped at each other through your fingertips.

He was the sun. You were the moon. And maybe it was time for an eclipse. Your paths being able to align for a short and fleeting moment in which you could allow yourselves to be with each other on this earth. Soon, all of it would be gone but at least you’d have the memories of having him. You found yourself breathing hard, running out of breath from all the kissing.

As you gazed into his eyes, another moment of silence struck. This time, it was a different kind of silence. Not a strange, awkward one, but one of awe, as if you couldn’t believe what had happened.

You closed your eyes as he leaned his forehead against yours, nuzzling your noses together. You couldn’t help but press one more peck to his lips making him smile.

“Are you going to let me talk now?”, you teased.

He chuckled and took a small step back, still keeping himself close enough to play with your hair, a smug grin lighting up his features.

“Maybe I will,” he teased, “or maybe I’ll just kiss you again.”

If you thought you couldn’t get more flustered, he managed to make you do so.

“I was going to apologize for kissing you before, but that seems a bit strange given what we just did.”

He smiled, tugging a strand of hair behind your ear. “Please never apologize for that.”

“Well, then I’m afraid I have to speak to you about everything else.”

“Everything else?”, he frowned.

“I’ve been thinking of how to say goodbye and I cannot seem to be able to find the proper way to do so.”

“Why must you say goodbye at all, then?”, he whispered.

He was so dangerously close to you that it took all of your self-restraint to not reach for him, kissing him once again and forgetting about everything else. It was an attractive thought, though. Not saying goodbye. Staying by his side forever.

Caspian brought one hand to caress your cheek, soon cradling your face around his hands. His touch was so soft as if you were made of glass. A single drop and you’d break.

“I am afraid of the regret that is sure to fall upon me if I dare to not do so.”

He swallowed hard.

“What if I don’t want you to leave me?”

“Caspian, please,” you pleaded.

“Please, what?”

“Please, don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

Caspian stood in front of you frozen. His mind ran wild as he tried to find the right words to express it. Searching for a way to make you understand how he felt without scaring you because after finally being able to accept in his heart that you had become a part of him, he didn’t know how to let go.

“I will always be me. And you will always be you. I am the Queen of Calormen. You are King of Narnia. We are opposites, and you know it. If you believed things to be any different you wouldn’t be searching for a queen when you have already found one.”

The words stung him.

“I will be gone and you’ll soon move on,” you continued, “hopefully then I can do the same.” You held your breath, waiting for his next move.

“How can you say that? How do you know I’ll ever be able to get over you?”

He watched as unwanted tears started forming on your eyes, bringing his thumb up to softly wipe them away.

“I imagine that I just hope that you do so that someday I’ll have the strength to do so myself.”

He felt as if his heart was going to explode, an entire world collapsing around along with it.

“In the meantime, I will find solace in a world of fantasy of what we could’ve been if only destiny had been kinder to us,” your voice trembled, “I will think of you in the mornings when the light hits the windows of my room in that way which reminds me of your smile. I will think of you when the first flower of my garden blooms and when the last one dies. I will think of you when the sea brings to shore bottles with messages from faraway lands. I will think of you whenever the breeze changes and the sun goes down. I will think of you forever and always, my love. ”

Caspian couldn’t keep his eyes away from you, standing there speechless. Completely taken, fully consumed by your words. Oh how he wished he had said something sooner, then maybe you wouldn’t be telling him all those things with a terribly dark feeling looming in both of your hearts. So he settled for once again kissing you.

He kissed you like it was the last time in his life he’d ever do it.

He kissed you as if he wanted to show you what was going through his mind, his body, and his soul, delivering himself fully, giving his heart away for your safekeeping. He wrapped his arms around your waist, eliciting a beautiful noise from your lips, and savored every second. Every touch. Every inch of skin connected. From your eyelashes to your nose, to your waist, to the curve of your neck.

“You are forever present in my thoughts, from the moment I wake up in the morning from when I retire to sleep at night. And in my dreams…you are also there,” he breathed the words against your lips, “there’s so much I wish I could tell you, but words seem to escape me whenever I attempt to form a coherent sentence.”

“Then don’t say anything,” you spoke back, nuzzling your nose against his jawline, “you don’t need to say anything at all, just know that I understand.”

He shivered when your lips touched the sensitive skin on his neck.

I love you, he thought, but didn’t say.

The sight of the cargo being loaded onto the ship only worsened the knot you felt on the pit of your stomach from the very moment you had woken up that morning. The entire day looked like the absolute opposite of how you felt. The sun was shining brightly, there were clear skies and a nice breeze in the air, all of which would usually please you but now seemed to only further sower your moods.

In reality, you had woken up with a smile on your face, head still was taken with the very clear memories of Caspian’s lips on yours, until the very real fact that you’d be leaving soon came crashing down on your chest. The night before had been an exception, a moment beyond anything you ever imagined. You talked and kissed and enjoyed each other’s presence until very late. Nevertheless, at some point, he needed to return to his chambers leaving you with a final kiss and the sensation of floating in the clouds.

That was until, of course, it all came crashing down as soon as he closed the door behind him.

You stood before the vessel that would take you home and already felt the dread of having to watch as Narnia became smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared in the horizon until you could no longer see it. You didn’t know if Caspian would come to see you off. You hoped he would but weren’t confident.

At this point, everything had become too painfully real and you had said your goodbyes previously anyway. You wished you didn’t feel the need to see him one more time but knew it was a slippery slope. It’s better this way, you told yourself, it’s better if he doesn’t come to say farewell once and for all.

A small crowd started gathering around the shipyard, you recognized a few faces. Lord Larson and Lord Vanderbilt, both members of the council stood out in the midst. You nodded at them respectfully acknowledging their presence, and they reciprocated the gesture. You had respect for them both, from your short time here, they both seemed to genuinely care about what happened to the kingdom and its’ best interest.

Ladies Anne, Cassandra, Estella, and Genevieve also stood not so far away and waved you closer. You tried not to grimace, you had no reason to dislike any of them given that you had created, even if for merely a short time, a bond with these women, but you couldn’t help the odd feeling on the pit of your stomach as you saw Genevieve for the first time after learning that she’d become Caspian’s wife.

You forced a smile as you approached them, not accounting for Anna’s actions as she moved ahead of her companions, crashing onto you and wrapping her arms around you tightly. Initially taken aback by her actions, it took a moment until you processed what had happened until you hugged her back.

“I will miss you,” she said loudly, followed by a rushed whisper, “she didn’t know, her father didn’t tell her anything until it was too late.”

You pulled back and stared at her in surprise. She gave you one more pointed look, making sure her message had come across.

How strange can be the paths that make us allies in the duration of our lives? Never had you thought that you’d make any friends in this land, and yet here stood someone completely unexpected, someone who seemed to care for you and thought it best to tell you something no one else would think to do. She had no reason to lie about it. Of course, Genevieve had not given previous consent to the arrangement, she probably suspected that her father was offering her to the King, making plans and alliances with other Lords to get her to become queen.

You were sure that Caspian himself probably had privately asked her for her hand in marriage, but it seemed unlikely, given the kind of men her father presented himself as, that she would’ve gone into that situation without strict orders for her to say yes.

You wondered if things would have been different had she known about it before it was all set in stone. Maybe she would’ve declined the proposal, though you very much doubted so, still remembering how her cheeks would blush any time Caspian gave her so much as a polite hello in passing. It was a comforting feeling. The inevitability of it all.

You moved on and also hugged Stella, her wishing you safe travels, and hoping you’d return at some point shortly. To which you only smiled and agreed softly, not wanting to spoil anyone else’s day with your grim predictions. The ones that permeated your head. That you’d never come back here unless it was for war. Fighting against Narnia or helping protect it. You were unlikely to ever return for a happy occasion.

Finally, you stood before Genevieve, who smiled at you brightly, not a single worry on her face. That was good, you told yourself. If she was happy, maybe she could make him happy as well. You forced a smile.

“Farewell, my lady,” you said, “I wish you all the joy in the world.”

She stepped forward and hugged you hard. “Thank you.”

“Be wise, Genevieve. I’m counting on you”.

She nodded in affirmation and being satisfied with her response you walked away, meeting Lorian and Ian by the ramp, ready to board the ship. Alongside them stood Rose and Khiara, both having tears in her eyes as they said their goodbyes. You had practically grown up with them and hoped to see them again in the future.

You signaled the men to board the vessel as you had one last thing left to speak with Lilyan in private.

“Remember our signal, if anything goes wrong, you know what to do.” She assented, confirming she understood exactly what you meant. She was being left here as more than a diplomatic asset but also to keep you updated if anything bad were to happen.

“One more thing, I just…”, you scanned the crowd one last time. He hadn’t come. Caspian hadn’t come. You tried to ignore the drop in your stomach. “If the task I have thrust upon you isn’t already too much, I wanted to ask you for one more thing.”

“Anything, your grace.”

You attempted to keep your own tears at bay, not yet being willing to succumb to the demise you felt. Regardless, your voice sounded small. Pained. Like the child Lilyan once saw cry because she couldn’t correctly swing a sword.

“Take care of him for me, please?”

“Yes, your grace.”

Of course. The King. You didn’t need to say his name for her to understand.

Lovers have a particular look on their faces when they think of each other. There’s no need to name, there’s no need to talk, one look is enough to know that their souls are tied. Lilyan observed you and Caspian and she knew. Of course, she knew. She’d never mention it, she saw how Caspian and you carried the same brightness as you spoke to each other, a warmth as if the sun was starting to rise to break the cold of the night. She just hoped that his absence wouldn’t bind you forever. Leaving you frozen in time.

Just before you walked the rake, you noticed a special someone had joined the crowd. You frowned when Lady Helena Lockwood gave you a somber smile as you boarded the ship and didn’t look back.

You felt as if you held your breath until you could no longer see land in the distance. That’s when the tears came. And they came hard.

Fortunately, you had rented private quarters on the ship where you could hide yourself for a while until the sorrow that had unleashed itself freely finally diminished. So you cried. Your entire body shaking as you sobbed, letting the tears stream down taking all the emotion along with them. Catharsis rushing over you like a furious waterfall, a necessary one in order to allow you to leave it all behind and face what was ahead.

After what felt like hours, you had the will to change your clothes, taking off your long dress and trading the attire for pants, a simple linen undershirt, and a wine-colored tunic, which were not only more comfortable but safer to travel in. They were stylish but looked much more like men’s clothing. Whenever you made port before reaching home, you’d also hide your hair with a hat. Traveling was dangerous for a woman, but even more so being a Queen. There were always people looking for something. Pirates and criminals looking for an opportunity, craving to extort someone, and a wealthy royal was a perfect target.

You knew you’d be particularly vulnerable in this trip, given that you no longer had Lilyan to aid you if anything happened. However, you had Lorian and Ian, two very well trained soldiers who were part of the Queen’s Guard. That, and you were not one to run away from a fight.

As you walked up the stairs to the main deck, you caught countless sailors not so subtly staring at you. You felt eyes on your back coming from everywhere. Strange, you thought, there were many you couldn’t recognize. An oddity considering the fact that this was the same ship you had originally come to Narnia in. You knew the crew as they were hand chosen and vetted by Lilyan herself. Why had it changed?

You asked the Captain that very question later at dinner time.

“Well, your majesty, I meself found that to be quite odd as well. One day, it’s all good and dandy and then on the next, the lot of them vanished. Took me by surprise that one. I reckon the lads found other work. I said, t’ was alright, I’ll fucking hire others then.”

The whole thing seemed off. Ian noticed your preoccupation and assured you that he and Lorian had observed the men all day, and none of them seemed particularly dangerous. That still didn’t settle your nerves.

“Stay sharp,” you told them and they guarded the door to your room all night, alert to any noise or anything that could indicate danger.

By the next morning, you made port, as the Captain had business to attend and more cargo bound to Calormen to board. The impression of being watched only worsened during the night and the following morning, so you decided to step outside the ship for a little while, taking a walk around the small town that presented itself near and maybe in the process be able to calm your nerves a bit. Ian and Lorian’s assurances hadn’t helped all that much.

For some reason, the strange smile Lady Helena had given you just before you boarded the ship kept coming back to your mind. That woman was full of secrets, you were sure. How else would she have kept herself at the top if she also didn’t have something to hide. She seemed to have a way of getting into your head, though that had nothing to do with the constant jumpiness you felt around those sailors.

Maybe some of those men were narnians and a lot of them didn’t feel comfortable around former enemies. That would be a rational conclusion. And yet, something on the back of your brain kept telling you to pay attention, to think more clearly, while you knew your heart was telling you to run, the hairs on your skin prickling up.

Ian offered to come along with you, and despite not really desiring to have company for your walk, you agreed. There could be many hidden dangers even in the most innocuous of places.

You decided to take a stroll around the port and after a short walk reached the shoreline right where it met with the woods. Tall trees ahead, the sea to your left, and your boots filled with sand. You exhaled loudly and sat down on the bare sand, staring in the direction of the ocean. Oh, how tired you were. At this point, all you wanted was to get home.

Ian stood about five feet away behind you. It was part of the job. He fought by your side during the war against the Old King, watched as you struggled through the years, saw you grow into the ruler you were, so he wasn’t a stranger to these moments. Moments in time where you truly looked fragile. Not the mighty queen he’d come to know, but the young girl who had most of her life robbed from her because of war and famine.

When you announced your trip to Narnia, Ian wasn’t blind that the reasoning might have something to do with King Caspian, and secretly hoped you’d secure the alliance through marriage. You deserved happiness, he thought, and the few times he’d seen you with the Narnian king, he noticed how you gave the man smiles you never dared to show anyone else. Ian watched for a minute before deciding to turn around in an attempt to give you some form of privacy.

You closed your eyes, thinking about how maybe it’d be a good idea to simply sleep the entire way home after you returned to the ship, completely unaware of a shadowy presence that inched itself closer and closer to your frame. Ian frowned, his senses telling him something was wrong, quickly turning around too late to act.

It wasn’t until a cold blade touched your neck that you noticed what had happened, already too late for anything to be done about it. Your breath caught in your throat and you opened your eyes.

Hovering above, stood a man with dark hair and green eyes. One of the sailors from the ship.

“You seem to have ventured a little too far away, your majesty”, disdain dripped from his voice like venom and another man grabbed you by the shoulders propping you up.

Your eyes searched around you, movements restricted by the dagger that still pressed against your throat. Noticing your agitation, the man mocked.

“Looking for your stuffy guard, pretty girl? He seems a little busy at the moment.”

Your hair was pulled as he forced you to look in the direction where Ian was. Pain piercing through your scalp as you watched him battling two large men at the same time, swords meeting, clinking against each other aggressively. He was fierce, moving quickly in the battle, making sure both men were having a hard time pinning him down.

But you could see how he was getting tired, your eyes meeting each other in the midst of it all. He gave you an apologetic look and you wanted to scream, yell that it wasn’t his fault, say that it was your own fault for being so goddamn stupid. The signs were there and you weren’t able to connect the dots, and now all of you were in danger for it.

The man was still holding you by your hair when an arrow hit him from behind, blood gushing out of the wound and splashing on your face. His grip loosening as he fell to the ground. You looked back in surprise and saw Lorian, not too far away with a bow and arrow at hand. He didn’t waste any time before aiming at the other man, who died before he was able to grab you.

Relieve washed over your body.

Lorian was here.

You and Ian would live.

He came running in your direction, never dropping his guard.

“Do you have any wounds, your majesty?”

“No, I’m fine,” your attention still stuck on the battle between Ian and the two sailors a few meters away. You turned your back to him, crouching to pat down the dead men near you in search of weapons. “We need to help Ian.”

Yes, you thought when you found another dagger on one of their pockets.

“Your majesty, you need to run.”

Lorian’s voice was strained, in a way you had never heard before. Frowning, you looked at him and noticed his sudden paleness as if he had just seen a ghost. Your eyes followed the direction of where his sight was set, a group of about twelve armored men mounted in horses was rushing in your direction, weapons drawn ready to attack. Panic quickly settled in your chest. You were severely outnumbered. Whoever they were, defeating them would be impossible.

Everything seemed to turn into slow motion as you watched one of the soldiers line up an arrow.

“IAN!” you screamed, “Look out!”

He tripped backward, desperately hurrying to get back on his feet and run in your direction, but it was too late as an arrow went through his throat. You watched as a river of blood gushed out of the wound, devastated by the knowledge that there was nothing you could do. He was going to die on that beach.

Lorian exhaled in shock behind you, his friend was dead and there was no time to mourn now. His instincts to save you took over as he grabbed your wrist and ran.

You scrambled and tripped as you struggled to get out of a dreamlike state. Ian, your loyal guard was dead. And why? Who were these people? What did they want with you? Thankfully, your feet took over allowing you to follow Lorian as both of you raced as fast as you could into the woods.

You were both panting when you stopped for the first time.

“We can’t stop,” he said, “they will be coming after us.”

“I know.”

You were so tired your chest was starting to hurt, midway through the run tears had started running down your face. You were once again reminded of your father, his guards chasing after you as you desperately tried to get away from the palace, your little brother a small child in your arms. He was crying too.

“Your majesty,” Lorian said louder, effectively breaking you out of your memories, “we need to move now.”

He sounded desperate and was right to because deep down he knew it would be almost impossible to get away from those people. You didn’t know these woods, you had no provisions, everything having been left on the ship. They were in larger numbers and had horses that could cover much more ground than you both in less time. They were armed to the teeth and you and him only had a bow and arrow and two daggers.

As you stared into his eyes you knew there was only one option.

“Go.” You said.

“What?”

“I said go, Lorian.”

“My lady, I can’t possibly do that, I made an oath…” - before he could finish the sentence you heard the sounds of the hooves getting louder behind you.

“It’s me who they want.”

“They will kill you!”

“We don’t know that!”

“And I’m not willing to find out!”

“Go now! I will distract them so that you can get away.”

“I cannot do that, my queen! It is my duty to protect you!”, he pleaded.

“By running, you are protecting me! There’s too many of them and I need you to survive,” you looked around knowing they were about to reach you “Narnia is much closer and I need you to tell Caspian what happened here! He will know what to do.”

Lorian looked as if he was about to cry when you gave him a stern look. He had lost one friend. He didn’t want to lose another. But your look told him there was no arguing, he was to follow orders and nothing else.

“I will not dishonor you, my queen”, he said, as he turned around and ran.

As soon as he was out of your sight, you exhaled and dropped to the floor. You were too tired of this. Too tired of a life of fighting. You closed your eyes and your thoughts immediately went back to last night in Caspian’s company. In those short moments, he brought you peace. He was the only one able to make all your worries disappear. His calming voice, soft hair, and pretty lips transported you to an alternate universe where only the two of you existed.

You clung onto those memories as you heard the horses surrounding you.

A hard object hit the back of your head and soon enough you had no choice but to embrace the darkness.

#king caspian #king caspian x reader #ben barnes x reader #the chronicles of narnia #narnia x reader #caspian x reader #prince caspian x reader #prince caspian fics #prince caspian #my fics #enter a king and a queen

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i-like-plan-m · 4 years ago

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the wind on another star

[On Ao3]

Lan Zhan wondered if pirates, of all things, were going to succeed where dozens of far superior fighters had tried and failed to kill him before.

The wide open void of space mocked him. Millions of escape routes within sight, and all worthless to him with a sabotaged hyperdrive and navigation system. The Hanguang-Jun was stranded in the middle of nowhere and caught in the crosshairs of a rather established band of mercenaries who doubled as pirates when they were between paid jobs.

Lan Zhan stood at the helm of his wounded starship and watched the empty escape pods drift away with so much fury he half expected them to explode.

Su She had conned his way onto Lan Zhan’s ship, hacked the navigation controls to drop them out of hyperspace and straight into the heart of a company of heavily armed mercenaries, and taken the only escape pod that he hadn’t already ejected into space.

Lan Zhan’s crew was trapped. Lan Zhan was trapped-- his ship’s weapon systems were mostly offline, brought partially back to life only by Lan Jingyi’s sheer desperation and skill. It wasn’t nearly enough to keep a dozen fighter planes and two cruisers at bay.

“Ambush,” Mianmian said tightly from beside him. “This was carefully planned, Captain.”

“What did we ever do to piss off these guys?” Lan Jingyi asked over the open comms, an edge of panic to his voice that made Lan Zhan’s mouth twist. It was his fault that his cousin was here in the first place, after all; he’d offered him a position on his ship due in part to Lan Jingyi’s skills and also to get him out of Lan Qiren’s hair. Apparently a too-clever, loud mouthed teenager trapped in the peaceful City of Clouds in Gusu had driven everyone up the wall.

He’d reminded Lan Zhan of Wei Ying-- the irrepressible character, the frequent mischief, a voice that ricocheted off of steel walls like a blaster shot. He was joy and humor and noise, a welcome change from the solemn silence aboard the Hanguang-Jun. It made him think of things loved and lost, bittersweet memories that perhaps made him more lenient with Lan Jingyi than his family would approve of.

And Lan Zhan had brought him straight into a trap, likely to be picked off by power hungry mercenaries or held as a hostage.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, the control panel beeped urgently, warning him that the cruisers had locked their missiles onto the Hanguang-Jun.

So they had decided to kill him after all.

His brother would be devastated, Lan Zhan thought distantly.

“I’ve still got the sonics,” Mianmian said, strapping herself into the copilot’s seat and reaching for the weapons controls. As his security expert and weapons master, Mianmian had seen them through insurmountable odds before; she remained as cool as ever under the flashing red warning lights. “I can pick off the missiles as they come, unless they unload several at once on us.”

“Can we use them to hit first?” Lan Jingyi asked, breathing heavily as he worked in the overheated mechanical room. “No one in the galaxy can counter Lan sonic tech.”

“They’re out of range,” Mianmian said regretfully.

“They haven’t attempted to hail us?” Lan Zhan asked, staring the largest cruiser down as it loomed over them in a blatant attempt to intimidate them. He suspected there was more at play here-- cruisers like this cost serious money, and even if simple mercenary crews got their hands on one, they didn’t keep them long. But two? Lan Zhan knew a set up when he saw it.

Lan Jingyi-- their mechanic and communications officer, because he was “skilled like that”-- made a sound of disgust. “No. So much for intergalactic law, right?”

“So many for just us,” Mianmian said, scowling out the front shield. “That’s half a damn army out there.”

The Hanguang-Jun had a reputation, though. Lan Zhan and his tiny crew went where the chaos was, and recently they’d taken on a number of jobs that had required the full force of their combined skill and strategy to survive. Except they’d not only survived, they’d demolished multiple bands of the rogue mercenaries that wandered the galaxy, terrorizing the helpless colonies too small or poor to defend themselves.

Someone had been paying attention, it seemed. And they had gone so far as to plant a spy-- Su She, hired only a week ago as extra support-- to lead them to an ambush in the middle of nowhere.

No one would know of their deaths for some time; the largest cruiser had an active jammer to block any distress signals, and Lan Zhan wasn’t due for a check in with his family for weeks.

He regretted the deaths of his crew. His friends. The loss his brother and uncle would soon face. And, privately, Lan Zhan regretted that he would never find Wei Ying. The bright, brilliant boy who’d vanished entirely after the Sunshot Wars, wherein the galaxy had come together to bring down Wen Ruohan before he could harness a sun’s energy to demolish entire planets.

So much left unsaid. But Wei Ying had broken the Wen remnants out of a prison world and disappeared into the darkness between the stars. No one knew where he’d gone. If he was alive. If they’d ever see him again.

Lan Zhan, it seemed, would never find out.

“Our shields?” He asked quietly, gripping the sleek rail separating the pilots’ seats from the rest of the control room so tightly his knuckles were white.

“In tatters,” Lan Jingyi said, trying to sound brave and landing somewhere around apprehensive. “I’m doing my best, Captain, but…”

“It’s alright,” Lan Zhan said gently. “We will try the sonic cannons.”

Mianmian’s eyes flickered to him, but she kept quiet. They both knew it would only take one missed shot to destroy their ship, and they were laughably outnumbered. But the comms were open and Lan Jingyi was listening intently from the engine room, so they kept their mutual understanding nonverbal.

“Well. It’s been an honor, Captain,” she murmured, too low for the comm line to pick up.

“For me as well,” Lan Zhan said, and dropped his hands to the pilot controls. He would try to help Mianmian dodge missiles as best he could, despite the futility of the situation.

The beeping became frantic, screaming in urgency as the second cruiser locked onto them. The cockpit was dim, lit only by the flashing warning lights that cast them in hues of red.

They waited, braced for the first burst of light that would signal a dispatched missile, surrounded on all sides, caught in a killing field with no way out.

Three bright souls on the cusp of darkness, facing a death that would leave them floating adrift in the eternal expanse of space. Not so terrible an end, he supposed, for a crew of wayfarers.

Mianmian suddenly jerked in place. “What the...?”

Lan Zhan’s attention snapped to her, wondering if he’d missed the beginning of the execution. He followed her baffled gaze, and then froze at the sight of a mid-sized, battered red cruiser dropping out of hyperspace, right on top of the armada.

He knew that cruiser. Had seen it only once, when a small collection of Wen prisoners had boarded it in the midst of a fierce storm with a slender, defiant figure guarding their escape.

The Yílíng Lǎozǔ drifted casually along, drawing the attention of the armada when its heavy artillery cannons dropped into active position. Half of the mercenaries turned their starships around to face the new threat.

“Is that who I think it is?” Mianmian whispered. Lan Zhan could not answer, though the hope in her voice matched the rising sun of his own.

“Is what who you think it is? What’s happening?” Lan Jingyi asked. They didn’t answer, too focused on the Yílíng Lǎozǔ and its unhurried course through the mercenaries’ ranks. Neither took much notice when he skidded into the cockpit to join them, breathing hard with wide, fever-bright eyes.

MianMian made a noise low in her throat when one of the cruisers disengaged their missile lock and turned it onto the Yílíng Lǎozǔ. “They’re going to get blown into pieces, why aren’t they moving out of range?”

Lan Zhan didn’t even notice the moment he stood, so tense his bones felt as though they’d shatter into pieces at a single touch. Wei Ying, what are you doing?

As if in answer, the largest cruiser angled to give chase to the Yílíng Lǎozǔ-- and exploded so abruptly and violently that Lan Zhan nearly staggered back in shock. Mianmian swore in mingled fear and delight, and Lan Jingyi exclaimed similar feelings at the top of his lungs.

“They dropped mines, did you see that?” She asked, leaning forward with bright eyes. “Completely off the radar-- we didn’t get so much as a blip, and this radar’s the only damn thing that is working on this ship.”

“Wei Ying has always been inventive,” Lan Zhan said, chest tight with something huge and undefinable.

“Fucking brilliant is what he is,” Mianmian said, and then made a face. “Don’t you dare tell him I said that.”

That implied Lan Zahn was going to see him, which promptly overrode every other thought in his head and made him feel as though he’d been struck in the head with a Lan sonic cannon.

Debris from the destroyed cruiser littered the battlefield, briefly hiding the Yílíng Lǎozǔ from sight.

“They won’t fall for that trick twice,” Mianmian muttered, leaning forward. “Careful, now.”

And then, so suddenly Lan Zhan and Mianmian made twin noises of shock, the starships closest to the Hanguang-Jun exploded. He thought at first it was another trick with the mines, but--

A ripple of darkness rocketed past the nose of their ship, far too fast to track. It was utterly undetectable except for the trail of destruction it left behind. The starship moved at impossible speeds; not even the Nie’s most advanced fighters could move like that, and they were the foremost engineers in the galaxy.

It took another moment, during which starships blew up like a pre-planned chain reaction, for Lan Zhan to realize there were two of these ships-- starfighters, combat aircraft built for speed and stealth. They worked off of each other like they were a hive mind, targeting clusters of enemy ships and annihilating them with some unknown invisible weapon that pulverized the ships into fragments.

A series of explosions along the remaining cruiser nearly tore it in half. Lan Jingyi whooped as it careened wildly out of control and erupted into blinding light.

Lan Zhan’s focus, though, was drawn inexplicably to the shimmer of darkness flitting through the ranks of the armada, slipping into impossibly narrow spaces, performing acrobatics that only someone absolutely fearless would even dream of.

Wei Ying had always taken “attempt the impossible” to heart.

“Look!” Lan Jingyi exclaimed, pointing outside their windshield to a furrow in the black void of space. A third ship, this one hovering just beside the Hanguang-Jun as a clear threat-- come any closer, and you’d be decimated like the rest of the ruined armada. Lan Jingyi waved, and the ripple of black dipped low and then back into place.

“What kind of weapon is that?” Mianmian wondered, watching in awe as a single shot from one of Wei Ying’s starfighters dissolved a starship into particles.

Lan Zhan remembered Wei Ying’s theories on dark matter, and he wondered.

It did not take long for the battle to end. None of the ships even had a chance to escape, and any that tried were chased down within a few heartbeats and destroyed.

The communications system blipped as the two starfighters finished off the remaining enemies. Lan Jingyi looked at Lan Zhan in question, who nodded and waited for him to open the channel to say, “This is Lan Zhan, Captain of the Hanguang-Jun.”

“Hello, Captain,” someone replied. A young man, by the sounds of it, and politely cheerful. “Our captain has asked me to escort you to the Yílíng Lǎozǔ, if you are amenable.”

That was almost certainly not the way Wei Ying had likely worded it. Lan Zhan found himself wanting to smile. “I am amenable,” he said. “My ship is badly damaged and in need of repair.”

“We can help with that,” the boy replied, and was then interrupted by a voice that made Lan Zhan’s stomach swoop violently.

“Lan Zhan! Are you really going to let me put my grubby hands all over your shiny ship?”

He closed his eyes, emotion swelling in his chest. “Wei Ying can put his hands on anything of mine he wishes,” he said calmly, and meant every word.

He heard a squawk, a faint crash followed by an angry beep, and then a third voice calling in concern, “Wei-gongzi!”

“I’m fine, Wen Ning,” Wei Ying said hastily. Lan Zhan eyed the small piece of debris spinning away into the void, as though it had been clipped by the wing of a starfighter, perhaps.

“Ah,” Wei Ying laughed. “Lan Zhan, I didn’t expect you to have jokes now! I’ve missed a lot, it seems.”

“I have missed more.” Too much, if Wei Ying had made advancements like this; he’d clearly discovered some secret to the universe and left the rest of them far behind.

Lan Zhan had let him slip between his fingers once before. He was tired of being left behind.

“Wen Qing is bringing the Yílíng Lǎozǔ to you,” Wei Ying said with more warmth than Lan Zhan deserved. He had, after all, let Wei Ying down all those years ago. “I’ll see you soon, Lan Zhan.”

“Soon,” Lan Zhan agreed, and let the comm line fall to silence.

Soon. He felt his heart skip a beat in anticipation. Soon he would be face to face with Wei Ying again, the boy he’d loved and lost before he truly understood the potential for what it was, too busy being offended by the concept of his own stupid infatuation.

Soon, Lan Zhan thought again, and his tiny, hopeful smile was witnessed solely by the blanket of darkness and the glittering, luminous lights of a nearby star. A secret of his own, held between him and a universe full of possibility.

#my fics #my writing #the untamed #wangxian #wei ying #wei wuxian #lan zhan #lan wangji #space drama #lan jingyi #mianmian #luo qingyang #wen ning #wen qing #wen yuan #a yuan #lan sizhui #mdzs #ficlets

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kittydemon9000 · 4 years ago

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Hrrrrrrrr I know @blursed-ninjago-ideas reverse prompt thing was a while ago, but it took a while to finish mine and I ended up cutting out bits that didn’t work, so here. The prompt was Kai getting akumatized, but HM loosing control so here we go

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Kai didn’t know akumas could be so destructive. None of them did. Or at least, they’d been stopped before they could do any real lasting damage.

“GET DOWN!” Cole shouted, tackling him to the ground. A bright blue laser sailed past where Kai had just been, hitting a car instead.

It crumbled to dust.

From what Kai has gathered, the Akuma was from a young boy who had been bullied for his love of sci-fi, to the point where they’d started beating him up. His Akuma powers were the same as the kid’s favorite character: being able to blast beams of light that disintegrate whatever they touch.

Kai found himself cursing Hawkmoth yet again.

The group had already seen more than ten people get disintegrated, and there were probably many more.

“I have located the targets.” A monotonous voice said behind them. Kai’s blood ran cold.

The group turned around in horror to see true Akuma behind them. He had pale blue skin with a black visor covering the top of his head. He was wearing a deep, black suit with gold accents and a golden cape fluttered behind his. His boots were a similar gold with tiny rockets on the bottom, granting him flight. And his gun…..his gun was pointed right at them.

Before any of them had a chance to react, he fired.

Jay didn’t even have a chance to open his mouth before he crumbled to dust. They barely had a chance to breathe before the Akuma fired two more, at Cole and Zane respectively.

Nya was next, having a second to jump out of the way but the Akuma easily tracked her movements.

“KAI-“ was all Lloyd had time to say before he was gone too.

Kai could barely breathe. Jay, Cole, Zane, Nya, Lloyd…...his family, his siblings…..every single one of them was gone…..turned to dust

He vaguely heard the sound of the Akuma yelling out as Ladybug and Chat Noir chased him away, no doubt to lure him into a trap, or at least away from all the civilians.

The smell of burning surrounded him, he needed to leave, it was so suffocating and he needed to get away.

He was running. Sprinting at full speed, with no destination in mind other than far away from here.

Kai didn’t know how long he ran for. Minutes, maybe hours. All that filled his ears were the echoing sounds of Lloyd’s call and the haunting ringing of his phone.

In his running, Kai tripped on a piece of sidewalk, sending him crashing to the ground.

And that second of pain was enough to bring him back.

His family was gone. Turned to dust before his very eyes. And Kai? Kai was terrified. Kai was angry. Kai was guilty. Kai was filled to the very brim with unwavering, unrelenting grief.

Why did the Akuma decide to shoot him last? Why was it even targeting them? Why wasn’t it going for Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous instead? Why did it have it be them?

Pyrovenge.

Kai’s breath hitched before letting out a dark chuckle. That was a new one. How many Akuma forms did he have now? Four? Five?

In return for avenging the deaths of your family, I want Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous.

That did sound nice……...but no.

Why not?

That kid. It wasn’t his fault. He was just another victim.

And what about Ladybug and Chat Noir! If they had kept him distracted, or shown up earlier, your family would be fine!

Heros can’t be everywhere at once. They’re still human. The fact they step up to beat you-

But then something clicked in Kai’s mind.

Targets.

The Akuma had called them targets.

The anger grew.

Wait! Stop-

Hawkmoth had told the Akuma to target, to murder, his family. Probably to get him akumatized.

“I’m coming for you Hawkmoth, and there is nowhere you can run that I won’t find you.”

The purple blobs enveloped him, Hawkmoth yelling in his mind. But it didn’t matter.

Pyrovenge wouldn’t stop until Hawkmoth was dead.

———————

Ladybug bolted across the rooftops, dodging and jumping over the fires, ice spikes and piles of rocks that blocked her path. This new Akuma was tough. They so far hadn’t gotten anywhere close to him, and only through some live video footage did they learn their name was Pyrovenge. But, despite the name, they seemed to be able to do more than just make fire.

They also seemed to hate Hawkmoth, which could be used to her advantage.

“COME OUT YOU COWARD!” A deafening and furious voice echoed, followed by a loud explosion. Up ahead, Ladybug saw what looked like a fire tornado appear for a second before dissipating.

“Pyrovenge!” Ladybug yelled out as she reached the end of the building.

The Akuma was wearing a bodysuit that started at black by the feet but slowly transitioned into red as it went up. He had fingerless black gloves with a molten rock pattern runnin up his arms and stopping at the elbow. On his left shoulder was something that resembled a grey archery chest guard while on the right was a brown and gold shoulder guard that went down the length of his arm. A blue sash was wrapped around his waist with a few colorful buttons pinned on. It looked as though someone had taken clothes and accessories from six different closets and thrown them together. Ladybug’s inner designer cringed. It wasn’t even horrible, all the accessories by themselves would’ve looked great, but together it was just too random and all over the place.

Their skin was a burnt brown color with a black domino mask covering their eyes. The Akuma also wore a sort of head band, but instead of hair there was a roaring fire. His eyes were blazing red and filled with rage.

“What do you want!?!” He yelled, temporarily stopping his war path. The block of street they were on was almost completely destroyed, fires roaring on all sides. But luckily, Ladybug didn’t see any civilians.

“You need to stop. You’ll destroy all of Paris!” Ladybug pleaded.

“So what?” He spat. “You can just cast the cure to fix everything.”

“That doesn’t mean that damage hasn’t been done! Think of the people who might get hurt!”

Think of the people who could die went unsaid.

“That’s what I'm counting on.” Pyrovenge snarled.

“Well, we’d be pretty lousy heros if we let you.” Chat Noir quipped as he landed. He winked at Ladybug. “So it took so long, Milady. I got a little held up.”

Pyrovenge growled. “I won’t let you, or anyone, get in the way of my revenge. Hawkmoth killed my family. I won’t let that deed go unpunished.”

The sash around his waist started glowing a cyan blue and suddenly the flames atop his head went out, replaced by a slowly growing mass of water. The harsh reds of this clothes were replaced with a vibrant cyan blue.

He held his hands out and lifted them, and suddenly water erupted from the nearby fire hydrants and shot toward the heros.

The pair jumped out of the way, but the water curved around and shot toward them again. The heros just barely jumped out of the way again, dodging for a few more seconds before Pyrovenge let out an angry growl.

The floating water suddenly dropped to the ground with a splash, spraying outwards.

“Lucky Charm!” Ladybug cried out. From the magical ladybugs, a piece of paper began to fall. Before it could be snatched away, she jumped up and grabbed it.

“I don’t have time to deal with you!” He shouted.

Then, the buttons started glowing a darker blue and electric sparks exploded from his head. The cyan of his outfit was replaced by a dark blue, similar to the color of the electricity.

With speed like lightning, he darted away.

“Oh no you don’t.” Chat Noir said, sprinting after him, but he was quickly yanked back by Ladybug grabbing his tail.

“Meowch, Milady. What was that for?”

But Ladybug was looking with a slightly horrified expression at the Lucky Charm. For once, it wasn’t just bright red with block spots. There was a window of color.

“What is it?” Chat walked over and peered over her shoulder, but felt his breath stutter.

Chat recognized it, or rather, Adrien recognized it. It had been taken mere days before at the park.

In it was Lloyd, Zane, Jay, Cole, Nya and Kai. Only everyone but Kai’s eyes were scratched out.

“He doesn’t know the Cure brings people back.” Ladybug whispered.

“He doesn’t know the Cure brings people back!” She said again, this time much louder.

“Well, at least we know how to get him to calm down.” Chat commented.

————————

Pyrovenge let out a small snarl. Hawkmoth was back to trying to get him under his thumb.

“You’re just delaying the inevitable.” He said aloud. “If you just come out, it’ll be over quick.”

That was a lie and they both knew it. Pyrovenge would do anything to make sure his death was as slow and painful as possible.

“Pyrovenge!”

He let out an angry sigh.

“For the last time, I don’t want to deal with you!” he yelled. He glowed red and the fires atop his head grew.

“We just want to show you something.” The bug said.

“Nothing you say or do will make me stop. Hawkmoth. Needs. To. DIE.”

“Maybe nothing they say will.”

Pyrovenge stopped. No. No it was impossible. They were….they were dead.

“But maybe we can.”

But they weren’t. Standing before him were his family, each of them without a scratch or bruise. Looking just like they had before they were….

“Kai, please. Stop this. You don’t need to get revenge. We’re all okay.” Lloyd said.

“.....Lloyd?” Kai Pyrovenge whispered. The gloves started glowing and the earth keeping him high above the ground slowly started retreating back into the ground. Once he touched the ground, their glow faded and the reds and fire was back.

“Is it really you?” He whispered, his eyes pleading, desperately hoping it was true.

“Yes! Now please Kai, stop all this!” Lloyd pleaded. Pyrovenge took a few steps to him, hesitant and afraid.

With every step he took, the ninja grew tense. They trusted Kai to never hurt them. He’d probably die before he allowed that to happen….. But he wasn’t exactly Kai right now.

Once he was within a foot of Lloyd, he stopped. The flames shrunk until they were barely embers and he placed a hesitant hand on Lloyd's shoulder. His eyes widened at the contact, almost like he was expecting Lloyd to disappear under his touch.

He suddenly pulled Lloyd into a tight hug, tears escaping from his eyes.

“It really is you.”

#time for some kai hurt #kai #kai smith #lloyd #lloyd garmadon #miraculous au #ladybug #chat noir #ninjago #miraculous

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tarhalindur · 3 years ago

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Rebellion’s Biggest Outstanding Question

(Big fat PMMM+Rebellion spoilers under the cut, natch:)

Homura, at the end of Rebellion, believes that she is rebelling against Madoka’s will. But is she actually doing so? Or is she acting in accordance with it?

Let me explain.

I’ll start with the point I’m sold on either way (and have commented on at least twice before, including my explanation of Madoka’s other big mistake): Rebellion is directly downstream of Madoka making a single mistake immediately after her ascension in episode 12, a moment when she could not afford to make any mistake at all. Much like Madoka’s other big mistake in episode 10, this one is not obvious on the surface and only becomes clear when looking at the events through a symbolic lens.

Specifically, a Buddhist symbolic lens.

I’ll leave the full explanation there to this post, which lays out the Buddhist influence on base PMMM’s themes and imagery and on Madokami’s ascension better than I could. (Although its author is missing a few points. First, the shot of Madoka expanding to galaxy size is DIRECTLY out of ego death symbolism. Which makes sense, because there’s enough accounts to suggest that regardless of whether or not it has any deeper meaning beyond brain chemistry the people who’ve had it are describing a single class of subjective experience, and “one’s consciousness expanding to the size of the galaxy” seems to be a common feature of it - I’ve read at least one account of that kind of experience from, of all people, a random Protestant minister who claims to have had such an experience on a vision trip to the Amazon and only later realized that there was precedent for that kind of experience in Buddhist traditions, and he mentions that exact expansion as part of what he went through. Second, the flower on Madoka’s bow is a rose, not a willow... which makes sense, because “Guanyin/Kannon and the Virgin Mary are two aspects of the same goddess” has been a theory in certain parts for at least a century, and the rose has a traditional association with the latter goddess - there’s a reason they call it the rosary, after all. (I’ve seen speculation out of a few polytheist/less orthodox Christian circles I keep tabs on that Pistis Sophia is yet another aspect of the same goddess, too...) Third, note all the mandala symbolism floating around - most obviously Walpurgisnacht’s appearance and Kyubey’s exposition in episode 11.)

And that influence is important here, because part of the process of the escape from samsara is the breaking of all karmic ties to the world.

Except... Madoka does not do this. She leaves one karmic tie behind.

This one, to be precise:

Now, in theory it’s possible that the tainted miracle of Homura remembering Madoka has another root. But I have my doubts, and the biggest piece of evidence there is the OST: the track that plays when Homura meets Junko in the finale and offers to give up the ribbons is named Taenia Memoriae, aka “the ribbon of memories”. HMM,

(That Junko scene is in this regards the single most enigmatic scene of the main series finale to me. My instinct is that it’s drawing off of Christian mythos again, either canonical or Gnostic, but I can’t quite place what piece; I kind of want to compare it specifically to the Denial of Peter.)

Now, there’s two other pieces here that are worth noting.

1) While Homulilly is described as the Nutcracker Witch in Rebellion, Homulilly’s name and Witch card are first revealed in the PSP game, and there she goes by a rather different epithet: Witch of the Mortal World, nature is karma. Which is rather on the nose (the Mortal World [shigan] being another term for samsara), but then that’s probably by design - main series PMMM is not subtle at all when it wants to make a point. And it is this epithet, not the Nutcracker Witch, that the Doppel versions of Homulilly in MagiReco draw off of, which suggests the staff considered it important. (There’s a second distinction in the latter, because Moemura’s version of the Doppel implies that Homulilly’s nature was originally slightly different again - Witch of the Mortal World, nature is closed circuits - but I think for our purposes here this is a difference without true distinction, much like the Witch of the Near Shore pun for swimsuit!Moemura’s version of Homulilly.) And there’s echoes of this even in Rebellion: the Clara Dolls are of course referred to as the Children of the Mortal World, plus of course the obvious “Homulilly’s Rebellion barrier as the Mortal World” take. (Which, hmm. Hello second-order symbolism - Homura failing to “break out of the egg” as failure to escape the cycle of samsara.)

2) The red ribbons of course suggest a very specific form of karmic tie - the Red String of Fate. And you can be very, very sure that the staff intended that, too. To drag a certain piece of key animation back out from storage:

While it’s hard to tell at this size, it sure looks to my eyes like the two ends are specifically tied around the girls’ pinkies. You know, exactly where the proverbial Red String is said to be tied.

Or, to put it another way: AI YO.

Everything in Rebellion is downstream of this.

But all this is prologue. Now that we have established the mistake, we can address the actual outstanding question: Did Madoka intend to make that mistake? People have noted the applicability of Junko’s comments about intentionally making a big mistake when backed into a corner to Homura’s actions in Rebellion; do they also apply to the action Madoka took that led to that?

I am not sure. Both cases are consistent, and I’d put about even odds either way. But it’s the affirmative case I want to lay out here, to show that it does in fact exist:

- Let’s start with the one point someone else might bring up that I don’t really weight: Madoka’s final conversation with Homura in the flower bed. This one, I think, can mostly be discarded. We have word from both Kyubey and Sayaka that Madoka does not have her memories here; I can’t see both of them lying here. (Also remember that Kyubey seems to have restriction that is sometimes said to apply to demons, at least under certain circumstances: he cannot directly tell a lie. This is of course a very different thing from having to tell the truth, as episode 9 alone is enough to attest, but in this specific case it’s a boost to his credibility.) If there’s an actual argument here, it’s a second-order one; it is possible, especially given her divine abilities, that Madokami was running a Xanatos Gambit and counting on her amnesiac projection to unwittingly relay her true feelings. (In which case I would have to grab a certain infamous line from another well-known anime: “Just as planned”.)

- That one shot of Madokami’s gloved, scarred arm reaching down through the window to touch Homura. Operative word scarred. (And honestly, looking at one of the subs for that scene again Madoka’s comments there look potentially consistent with her actually supporting of or at least accepting Homura becoming a demon...)

- Mata Ashita, specifically the lyrics thereof. With the perspective of the full series, Madoka’s character song is fairly clearly from the perspective of Madokami, and it’s suggestive that she is not entirely happy with the results of her wish and ascension.

- The fact that Rebellion happened at all. There’s a complaint that I’ve seen regarding the mechanics of the Incubators’ plot in Rebellion: logically, by the wording of Madoka’s final wish the Incubators’ plan to use the Isolation Field to block the Law of Cycles should not work, since part of Madoka’s wish was to rewrite any rule or law that would prevent her from destroying Witches with her own hands, including the one the Incubators set up with their Isolation Field - doubly so if you take Madokami’s statement can see every world that ever existed or could ever exist and apply it to the Sealed Reality the experiment generates. Except... there is one way that argument fails, regardless of anything else: namely, if Madoka saw what the Incubators were doing and intentionally allowed their experiment to proceed. And at this point there is precedent for her doing something very similar; AIUI in her Magical Girl Story in MagiReco Madokami does something very similar wrt the MagiReco timeline, deliberately declining to destroy it despite its continued existence conflicting with the Law of Cycles.

(- Magia. This point of argument I’m not convinced of either, but let’s lay it out. (Honestly, even if I’m right I’m not sure how much of this was consciously intended, but creations can have a life of their own - especially creations where fucking natural disasters delay them so that they’re released on the most appropriate day possible!) There’s two pieces to this, one I’m more sure of than the other:

1) The visuals. Here’s the spot where I feel most solid about interpreting Magia: the ED visuals are clearly a reference to Madokami’s ascension. (The show loves hiding that sort of foreshadowing in plain sight, why would you be surprised?) Note the second half particularly, both Madoka’s hair lengthening and the starfield she’s running past. (I think the order of the four other girls in the first half is probably how long they held out without Witching out.) That leaves two issues, one more obvious to Western audiences and one less so. First, that enigmatic and ominous shot of Madoka in fetal position (appropriate - her request in 10 and then her wish in 12 can be rephrased as “don’t let me grow up”) in the eye of Mephisto. Second, there’s a point I’ve seen raised in analyses of Connect: in Japanese cinematography, motion from right to left indicates a correct course (unlike its Western equivalent, where the opposite applies)... and for the entirety of Magia Madoka is moving left-to-right.

2) The lyrics. This is the part I’m less sold on, but once again let’s lay out the affirmative. My line here derives from a hunch: Connect is famously from Homura’s perspective despite appearing to be from Madoka’s, perhaps the inverse is also true? I’m still not sure there, but especially if you’re considering the TV version it can work... provided the lyrics are specifically from Madokami’s perspective again. Grabbing the wiki version of the translation: “The light of love lit within your eyes will transcend time” sure fits better if we’re talking about Homura rather than about Madoka, likewise “with this power that can break even darkness” sure sounds like a better fit for Madokami to me. And in that case the most interesting stanza is the second: “Swallow down your hesitation. What is it that you wish for? With the direction of this greedy admiration, will there be a short-lived tomorrow?” The former two lines are quite consistent with Homura’s decision in Rebellion (and I note the visual of Homura biting down on her Soul Gem to break it!), and “tomorrow” is consistently a reference to the possibility of Homura and Madoka meeting again in other PMMM songs (Mata Ashita again, Colorful, Connect full version) - which is realized courtesy of a greedy admiration, no less. So. Magia’s full version might count, too - there’s lines there that are harder to square from a Madokami perspective (”if I can move forward without hesitation then it’s fine if my heart gets broken” especially), but “Someday, for the sake of someone else, you too will wish for great power; on the night love captures your heart, unknown words will be born” fits Homura’s fall better than Madoka’s wish, I think.)

- If Madoka’s mistake in 12 is intentional then it more closely mirrors her (unintentional) mistake in 10: she’s implicitly asking Homura to once again do something she can’t and stop her from/alleviate the effects of her making a mistake.

- At a Doylist level, if they go for a proper happy end (either in Walpurgis no Kaiten or in a hypothetical sequel to the same) I’m not sure there’s any way they can get there without using this interpretation. (In general, the two outcomes that make the most sense to me are “Akuhomu becomes the core of Walpurgisnacht, cue ending scene with Moemura making her wish” (the Logic Error ending, consistent with the Eternal Return of the Self; cue MagiReco as the way out) or an ending based on the answer to this question being yes - the easy version being a movie of everyone except Homura fighting to let Madoka rejoin the Law of Cycles only for her to surprise everyone with some sort of ending based on “actually, I was counting on her to do this from the start”.)

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dennou-translations · 4 years ago

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K SIDE:GREEN – Chapter 1 (Part 2)

Feel free to message me about possible corrections. If you can, please support the creators by purchasing the official releases.

← Previous || Index || Next →

“‘Electricity’, activate!” Letting out a resonant voice, Hikotarou raised his PDA up high.

Isn’t this guy reading too much manga? Should I stop looking up to him after all? Sukuna thought, hands buried inside his pockets, yet the PDA’s screen started glowing green before his eyes.

“Eh?”

As if to sneer at his foolish reaction, a green shine burst from within the terminal. Drawing a zigzag track in the empty air, the green lightning pierced a PET bottle about five meters away. A chemical-like smell of melted plastic drifted from it.

Sukuna approached the burned PET bottle, and as if to say that he was acting without thinking, he touched it.

“Hot!”

Instantly, he flung it away. The PET bottle made a loud noise as it hit the ground. White smoke dissipated in the wind. A blistering appeared on Sukuna’s hand.

“What’re you doing?” Hikotarou cackled a laugh.

With his back turned to that laughter, Sukuna was looking down at his hand, forgetting to even blink.

That was real. It was neither magic nor a trick. A real supernatural power.

He had never even imagined that something like it existed in this world. Games were games, not reality. It was exactly because he usually played many of them that Sukuna was perfectly aware of this much – or at least he intended to be.

However, the words that Hikotarou had said to him one day came back vividly. A video game that one could play in the real world. That was most certainly a fact, not a metaphor or anything of the sort.

Sukuna heard an unfamiliar noise. A steadily pulsating beat. That was something Sukuna could hear from nowhere other than his own chest. A fragment of a world that had only ever exited within fiction and fantasy was unmistakably floating before his eyes – this truth was making Sukuna’s heart beat loudly.

“How’s that? It was true, wasn’t it? You believe what I said now?”

It was a wholly different story that Sukuna was annoyed at Hikotarou, who, in a stark contrast with him, was smirking proudly and pushing his PDA against Sukuna’s cheek. He gave quite some thought to knocking down the device, but that would be lashing out while being in the wrong, which was pathetic. After reflecting a little, he decided to attack from a different opening.

“You said you’d bought this thing, right? How much was it?”

When asked, Hikotarou quickly averted his eyes and said in a low voice, “1k.”

“So expensive! Ain’t that the same amount as the promotion points!?”

1k was a short for 1000. In order to rank up within JUNGLE, the points had to be consumed, and the points required when an E-rank was promoted to an L-rank were exactly a thousand. When thinking about earning that many points in an honest manner, it would likely take almost a month.

“Also, didn’t you say this was disposable or something? Don’t tell me this is the end.”

“O-Of course not! I said it was disposable ‘cause there’s a frequency limit! We can still use it!”

“How many times more?”

“Four...”

Meaning that item cost 1000JP for five times of use. Unfair overcharging was an understatement for it. And out of all things, Hikotarou had spent a valuable opportunity to make fair use of those 200JP on a PET bottle. Most likely with the sole purpose of showing Sukuna something nice.

The moment he thought this, something welled up within him.

“Fufu,” he snorted as if about to burst out, a roar of laughter following suit. “Ahahahahaha! What’s with that? Such a waste! Aren’t you an idiot!?”

“Sh-Shut up! It’s fine! Those are my points after all!”

“Even so, you—for something like that—”

“It’s ‘cause you wouldn’t believe what I said if I didn’t do something like this!”

A worked-up Hikotarou was so amusing that Sukuna laughed even louder. If his classmates saw him now, they would be wide-eyed and shocked. Sukuna himself had just found out for the first time that he could laugh with such a strident voice.

“Damn, it ain’t something to laugh so much for. You’re always making such a sour face too,” Hikotarou said with a strained smile. It was apparently influenced by Sukuna’s burst of laughter.

And so, for a while, the two players laughed together.

“But how does this thing work?” After laughing for some time, Sukuna scanned Hikotarou’s terminal with his eyes. “Doesn’t seem like there’s any mechanism planted in your PDA. It’s the same model as mine.”

“Yeah. Everything is apparently thanks to JUNGLE’s personal use app. Everybody calls it ‘ESP app’.”

If one could use psychic powers upon signing in, then there was indeed no social media more revolutionary than this one. It was about enough to become explosively viral, but it had its own reasons to remain as underground.

According to Hikotarou—

“There are these two types, the ‘skill’ and ‘item’, in the ESP app.”

“Skill” referred to powers that could be used constantly. If people called something a “psychic ability” in JUNGLE, it normally indicated one thing. That when rising to G rank and above, they could choose only one power and use it limitlessly. From among many abilities, they would select just one that matched them and nurture it in their desired direction.

On the other hand, any player could use an “item”. However, it was disposable – as Hikotarou had just showed, one had to spend copious amounts of points for each time of use. In exchange, it could be used in combination with skills to develop various strategies.

“You can clear high-level missions by combining those two – that’s what the upper-rankers are doing, it seems. Well, this is just what I heard, since I’m still in a low rank.”

“Huun. Sounds like you can do a lot, depending on the combination.” Looking through JUNGLE’s store, Sukuna nodded as if impressed.

“Yeah. Sukuna, you should think now about which you’re gonna pick when you turn into a G.”

“That so? I can also use it?”

Up until the present, Sukuna had lived a life where “things that he could not do” did not exist. Which was why he had never once thought that he wanted superhuman powers like those from mangas or movies.

The reason for Sukuna to have butterflies in his chest when he saw the “ESP app” was that JUNGLE had destroyed his world.

It was such a wholly different world that it could completely overturn the things imposed on him until now – the tedious common sense and reality – by his parents and the people at school. Coming in contact with a power none of them could imagine and racing to a place their hands could never reach – how thrilling that was!

When he realized, Sukuna was gripping his PDA strongly. This was neither him fleeing from suffocation nor rebelling against parents. Sukuna had just now come to know the true appeal of JUNGLE.

“Right. Aah, that’s right! I’ll rise too! Then, I’ll use even more amazing powers and accomplish bigger missions!”

“Yeah! That’s the spirit!” Hikotarou nodded, laughing.

Sukuna was also grateful that he existed. Hikotarou was the one who had told him about JUNGLE and showed him its real charm – it was all thanks to him.

If he could one day clear up all sorts of missions using various kinds of psychic abilities with Hikotarou, it would surely be extremely, tremendously fun.

It was Sukuna’s first time being excited ever since he was born.

◆

“Well, see ya tomorrow,” Hikotarou said at the three-way junction on the way home that day, waving his hand.

Sukuna stopped walking involuntarily, as their talk had been at the most interesting part. They had looked into the JUNGLE store list, discussed about this and that combination and just as he figured out the best combo, he had started talking about it.

Sukuna’s house was on the right side of a Y-shaped three-way junction. Hikotarou was about to walk toward the left side. Wordlessly, Sukuna went to Hikotarou’s side.

“Sukuna?”

At Hikotarou’s surprised look, Sukuna pouted and turned away. “It’s fine to go the long way around sometimes, ain’t it?”

Hikotarou blinked repeatedly. That gaze was annoying. Enough to make him almost unwittingly forget the invisible combo that he had finally come up with.

“That so? Then hang out with me for a bit.”

Hikotarou did not try to tease him for it. His countenance surly, Sukuna replied with nothing but a “fine by me” to that grinning face.

And so, Hikotarou took a detour. The place he stopped by was a drugstore in front of the station and what he bought was cat food.

As Hikotarou held two one-kilogram dry food packages with both arms, Sukuna asked as if skeptical, “You had a cat?”

Hikotarou averted his eyes with a rather subtle expression. “It’s not like I’m keeping it.”

Through that single sentence, Sukuna was somewhat able to understand the situation. He followed behind Hikotarou, who was walking mutely.

Eventually, the two arrived at a vacant lot on the outskirts of town. In a corner of said vacant lot, where weeds grew boundlessly, there was a cardboard box. Cries of “mew, mew” that seemed to beg for something could be heard coming from inside the box.

“They were four at first,” crouching down and opening the food package, Hikotarou whispered as though talking to himself. “One was the mother and the others were kitties. But one day, the mother was gone, and when I came to see them after a while, the two other than this one were dead.

Sukuna looked around. On a spot at a short distance from there, he could see two small stones lined up beside the block wall.

“This guy here was about to die too, but I did a bit of research, and after I gave him milk and brought him something warm, he managed to recover one way or another.”

“Won’t you try to take it home?”

Still crouched, Hikotarou looked up at Sukuna. He had on a weak smile. “We can’t have pets at my place. My da—my father hates this kinda stuff.”

“Then—I know; how about you use JUNGLE? Send out a mission to find him a foster parent.”

Hikotarou laughed dryly, “I think whoever takes it on will probably just take the points and send the cat off to a health center.”

Sukuna went silent, crouching down.

The little cat was dirty. Its fur and skin were muddy, its tail bent. It was engrossed in eating the food, but once it looked up, its eyes had hardened mucus on them.

Hikotarou took out a tissue and gently wiped it off. “Wanna pet it?”

“That okay?”

Hikotarou raised his voice as he laughed at the dumbfounded question. With a sour face, Sukuna reached out a hand and touched the kitten. Perhaps thinking that he was food, the kitten thrust its nose onto his palm and sniffed it incessantly. It was ticklish. His mouth distorting, Sukuna endured the sensation. Finally, the kitten pushed its body onto Sukuna’s hand and its sleeping breath began to ensue.

As if not to disrupt the revolving, throaty sound, Sukuna complained in a low voice, “Hey. What do I do about this? I can’t move.”

“Won’t it be fine if you don’t move?”

“You!” He let his anger show, but the kitten might awaken if he moved recklessly. As if having bitten into a bitter-tasting bug, Sukuna looked down at the kitten. “Does it have a name?”

“Yeah. He’s also Nine.”

That was Hikotarou’s handle name. Sukuna stared at him with a look that said, “Don’t give it such a confusing name”, yet Hikotarou was gazing down at “Nine” and laughing.

“I’m glad it’s summer right now. A parentless kitty wouldn’t survive if it were winter. Even then, many dangerous things will likely happen to him, but if he grows up just a bit more, he’ll get by on his own—”

“I’ll,” Sukuna opened his mouth before thinking of anything. “I’ll keep it.”

Hikotarou looked at Sukuna with wide eyes.

“My parents probably won’t allow it, but even so, I’ll keep it. I think I can do it. My house is big. I can think of lots of places that neither my parents’ nor the servants’ eyes could reach.”

“Sukuna—”

“That should be better for this guy than here. I can put up a box, a blanket and things like that in our unused warehouse, and a toilet too, I guess. I don’t know about that stuff, but I’ll look it up later. You can also come over when you feel like seeing him.”

As if angry, Sukuna was making a surly face. Hikotarou looked at that expression of his with rounded eyes. Unable to bear the gaze, Sukuna stared down at the little cat once again.

“Of course, only if you’re okay with it.”

Hikotarou replied to Sukuna’s mumbled words, which sounded like an excuse, with a smile that seemed to shine, “It is! I’m counting on you, Sukuna!”

Sukuna laughed sheepishly. The kitten’s sleeping breath ensued windingly from within his hand. While feeling its body temperature on his palm, Sukuna inferred his opinion by muttering a few words, “By the way, can’t you change the name Nine?”

“Nope.”

◆

The home of Nine the kitten was soon found.

There was a wooden shack in a corner of the Gojou estate. Originally used as the gardener’s warehouse, it was now abandoned as the garden tools had been moved to a storehouse in the main residence. The shack, which Sukuna’s parents obviously did not go anywhere near and neither did the servants, was perfect for his purpose. He had arranged the kitten’s needs in a corner of the cramped and dim shack.

He could not possibly bring that cardboard box home, so he had laid a blanket over a basket woven from wood, making it into an improvised bed. The kitten Nine had raised its voice in protest against being moved from its former location, but it soon quieted down after being tossed into the blanket.

He had left it with a box of food, a water bowl and litter for its toilet. He could not take it outside, so he would have to raise it there for a while.

Looking around the small shack, Sukuna had nodded to himself. The kitten would surely be okay there. Nobody would find out. Convincing himself of this, Sukuna had cautiously left the shack and returned to the main house.

Today was the day to eat dinner with his mother.

“How was school, Sukuna?” such words came out of her red lips.

His knife, which had been carefully cutting the meat, stopped moving completely.

Sukuna looked at her with upturned eyes. The appearance of his mother enjoying an elegant dinner on the other end of the pure white tablecloth and silver candlesticks, with two servants at her left and right sides, was almost like the queen of a nation.

“Just normal.”

“‘It was’.”

“It was normal.”

His mother titled her neck a little. With a slight movement from her gaze, one of the servants moved soundlessly and poured wine into her glass.

“Have you been getting along with your friends? Your face has been bright lately. Are you having fun?”

Sukuna was silent.

If she was asking if he was having fun playing with a friend, the answer was yes. But not with the friends she had provided for him – Ninomiya and his former followers. It was with a smart and lively boy named Kue Hikotarou.

What would his mother do if she found out about Hikotarou?

She did not approve of anything that did not act in accordance with her will approaching him. Needless to recall the matter with Ninomiya, if his mother knew about Hikotarou, she would certainly try to keep him away. He could not think that she would be appreciative of things like JUNGLE.

Hikotarou might have to transfer schools because of him. As this possibility crossed his mind, Sukuna was horrified.

After thinking a little, Sukuna answered, “Yes, I am having fun, Mother.”

So you have nothing to worry about. So don’t meddle in anything and leave it as that. Leave me alone—

His mother drank a sip of wine, smiling. “Is that so? Then I’m glad. Your happiness is my happiness—”

Suddenly, the smile disappeared.

She stood up from the chair as if kicking it away. The glass collapsed with a smashing sound, the wine spilling and dyeing the tablecloth red. Approaching the frozen Sukuna with big steps, she firmly grabbed the hand that was still holding a knife and raised it with force.

A raspy voice came out of her lips, which were once tightened into a thing line, “What is this?”

Stock-still, Sukuna looked at it. He had a burn on his right hand. It was the wound that he had earned himself right after school today, when Hikotarou showed him the ESP app.

It had happened due to his own carelessness, and until just now, Sukuna had even forgotten that he had a burn. After all, it did not particularly hurt and he thought it would heal soon.

But his mother was different.

“Explain, Sukuna.”

Sukuna’s mother thought of him as a treasure. He was her property, like gemstones and rings. Of course his mother would be angry if said property was damaged. Whatever the property itself thought did not matter.

Sukuna spoke with a voice that sounded like a gasp, “It—is nothing, Mother. This is just—”

“‘Just’ what?”

“I was eating something hot during lunch and... I touched the food with my fingers...”

It was a painful excuse if he were to say so himself, but he could not think of anything else. Talking about Hikotarou was out of question. If he said he had borne it in class, there was no mistaking that she would check with the school for confirmation. If the lie were exposed, Sukuna’s mother would thoroughly investigate his surroundings.

If this happened, Hikotarou’s existence would definitely be revealed. And if she found out about Hikotarou, farewell would be waiting in the not-too-distant future.

Sukuna’s mother stayed dead-silent, peeking at his face fixatedly. Halting his breath, Sukuna accepted her gaze.

“Is that so?” muttering these few words, the mother let go of Sukuna’s hand.

Sukuna pulled his hand to his chest as if stealing it back. His heart was beating with strong thumps.

As a Crescent Moon-like smile once again crept on his mother’s red lips, she reached her hand out to caress his head. “Mother has an urgent matter to take care of. I will be going now, but you can eat dinner by yourself, right?”

Swallowing saliva as if swallowing lead, Sukuna answered, “Yes.”

“Really? You are a good child, Sukuna.”

Stroking Sukuna’s head in a noticeably rough manner, his mother turned on her heels. The way that the wine splashed on the back of her skirt looked like a spurt of blood was forever seared into Sukuna’s eyes.

◆

Five: You there?

Nine: I am. Got any business with me?

Five: Nothing that you can call “business” in particular.

Nine: Then what is it? Can’t sleep?

Five: Hey. Didn’t anything happen to you?

Nine: I don’t get what you mean.

Five: I mean, like...

Five: Didn’t anyone, like your parents or people from school, say anything to you?

Nine: Aah, I get it. Is it about JUNGLE?

Nine: I told you, didn’t I? That the level of anonymity is super high in JUNGLE. You can change the app icon anytime so nobody can tell who you are just by looking, and you can also hide that you installed it if you feel like it. You’re scared of being found out ‘cause you’re from a good family, right?

Five: No! That’s not it!

Nine: Then what is it?

Five: Like I said...

Five: It’s nothing.

Nine: What’s up with you?

Five: I said it’s nothing!

Five: Just, if anything happens at school, make sure to tell me. ‘Cause I might be able to do something about it.

Nine: Don’t say such creepy things out of nowhere... What, you mean something’s gonna happen to me?

Five: I don’t know. But this is a what-if.

Nine: Yes, yes, thank you for your kindness.

Five: I’m serious!

Nine: Then I’ll answer seriously; I won’t rely on you even if that happens. JUNGLE players are independent by default. No matter if they have friends, they don’t do that kinda thing. Aren’t you the same?

Nine: ......

Nine: Sukuna? You awake?

Five: I am.

Five: I get it. It’s just like you said. Forget about that.

Nine: Ah, that so? Then are you done? I ain’t done with tomorrow’s homework yet.

Five: Haa? You should finish homework the moment you get it.

Nine: Shaddap! G’night!

Five: G’night.

◆

The next day and the one after, Hikotarou did not show up at school.

Sukuna was fretting about all sorts of things, yet it was not as if he could do anything. Hikotarou had said that in the chatroom, but if Sukuna’s mother attempted to keep him away, there was surprisingly little that Sukuna could do.

Sukuna’s mother loved him and tried giving him whatever he wanted. However, it was completely impossible to change her opinions through his. Plead as he might, his mother would do as she willed. His voice would not reach her.

But that did not mean he could fold his arms and watch.

He was the first and only friend that Sukuna could respect ever since he had been born. Just thinking about this friend having to go somewhere far away because of him made chills run through his spine.

Until now, he had never experienced so much fear and anxiety. Although he did feel suffocated and disturbed by his mother’s actions, he had never felt dread.

Before he realized, Sukuna had sneaked out of his room and headed to the shack. He opened the door gently. Relying on the light of his PDA, he found the basket he had left in a corner. Wrapped in its blanket, the kitten Nine had been sleeping soundly.

However, perhaps noticing Sukuna, Nine looked up at him with its round eyes. Raising a sweet cry of “mew, mew”, it scrambled its way up the basket, crawled out and ended up rolling down to the floor with a thump.

“Ah, h-hey—”

He frantically picked Nine up, but this time, it climbed up his arm. As he let it do as it pleased out of not knowing what to do, Nine reached Sukuna’s shoulder, rubbed its head against his neck and curled up on the spot. It was warm and ticklish.

Sukuna’s cheeks slackened. Supporting Nine with one hand, he made sure it would not fall. Sitting down in a corner of the shack, he whispered in pauses, “I gotta protect him, huh.”

As if to respond to his talking to himself, Nine cried out a “mew, mew”.

◆

Even though he had consolidated his determination, on the very next day, Hikotarou popped up in front of Sukuna as he was getting ready to go home.

“Hey, Sukuna. Have you become an L ranker ye—ouch, owowowowow!”

As Hikotarou waved his hand lightly with the same bright smile as usual, Sukuna forcibly grabbed his wrist and went out to the corridor.

Hikotarou raised his voice in protest, “Wh-What’re you doing?! That hurts!”

“Shut up! Why did you take days off!?”

While Hikotarou was not coming to school, Sukuna had imagined all sorts of bad things. Such as, he could be preparing to be transferred or his parents could have told him to stay away from Sukuna. That was why he was awfully irritated by Hikotarou’s carefree smile.

However, Hikotarou, who had no idea about that, said while cackling a laugh, “My bad, my bad. I was just a bit busy with missions lately.”

Apparently, Hikotarou had been absent from school due to fake illness. As he said that he had been running around town while pretending he was at school in order to accomplish JUNGLE missions, Sukuna was flabbergasted.

Feeling spent, Sukuna leaned against the wall. He gave Hikotarou a sharp gaze. Fretting had made him look like an idiot.

At that moment, he realized something. Hikotarou’s forehead was just slightly swollen above his right eye.

“What’s that?”

As Sukuna pointed at it, Hikotarou raised his voice with an “aah” and said, “I hit it in the middle of a mission. Nothing to worry about.”

“Nobody’s worried.”

“Thought so. That aside, wanna go on a mission now?”

At Hikotarou’s shining eyes, Sukuna asked curiously, “Missions can be done in duos?”

“What, you didn’t know? There’s an urgent mission coming out now!”

“‘Urgent mission’?”

Despite finding the unfamiliar term strange, Sukuna tapped on JUNGLE and opened the “mission” tab. As he did so, the words “urgent mission” were indeed dancing over the top row. Unlike the other missions, a large red font was used for it.

The title was “Urgent Mission: Uwagami Town Survey”.

“Activating urgent mission. The mission content is a survey around Uwagami Town. Please record the cityscape and roads of Uwagami Town in photos and videos and upload them. For the photos, the reward is 5 JP each, and for the videos, 50 JP per minute. We will pay double the reward for videos near Uwagami First Street. Details are as follows─”

Sukuna dry-swallowed. “This is around here?”

“Yeah! So it’s a chance! It was activated just now, so most of the players haven’t noticed!”

Hikotarou was excited. Of course he was. Uwagami Town – moreover, the First Street – was precisely the surroundings of Uwagami Elementary, which Sukuna and Hikotarou had to pass through. Meaning that they would earn JPs just by taking pictures of this area. It was as if dirt had turned into gold.

“All right! Let’s go!” Squeezing his PDA, Sukuna gave a broad nod. As if he were infected by Hikotarou’s enthusiasm, his chest started throbbing.

◆

Uwagami Town was a high-class residential area located in the heart of the city center. The adjacent Shimogami Town was a government district where governmental facilities were concentrated, and many people who belonged to government agencies lived in it. In particular, there were police officers stationed in front of mansions where important people lived, watching for suspicious figures.

To start off, Sukuna took a picture of one of said police officers. The police officer merely squinted without saying anything.

“First, 5JP!”

“Let’s go steady! Steady!”

Talking loudly to each other, the two took pictures one after another. A two-lane main street that ran from east to west through Uwagami Town, an enormous building under construction, a vast parking lot, commercial buildings lined up as if to jostle one another, a spacious park and the children playing tag in it.

Upon a more careful look, there were countless other people taking pictures like Sukuna and Hikotarou. Salary men, high school girls, housewives and even elders who, no matter how one looked at it, were over 70 were positioning their PDAs to photograph and record the streets. Amongst them, there were also those who were being interrogated by police officers due to taking pictures too unreservedly. They indeed looked suspicious.

The chances that Sukuna and Hikotarou would be questioned were slim, but they somewhat did not want to be regarded as the same as those people, so they started moving to less popular locations.

“Let’s go, Sukuna!”

“Ah, wait!”

The main street of Uwagami Town stretched through a beautifully maintained city, but when one entered one of the back streets, an old townscape spread out. The back alleys, so narrow that it seemed people would have a hard time just passing each other in them, had branches and leaves hanging over them as if they were tents. Hikotarou and Sukuna sprinted under the sunlight coming through the gaps between the leaves, storing everything that caught their eyes in pictures.

At the veranda of a wooden house, an old woman was napping with a cat on her lap. Just beside the gutter stood an outdated red post. In front of a mysterious shop, there were three lined-up statues of tanuki. Sukuna photographed them all with refreshing surprise.

“It might be my first time coming to a place like this.”

Hearing the whisper that leaked from Sukuna while taking pictures, Hikotarou made a skeptical face. “Your house is around here, ain’t it? Never went exploring?”

Sukuna shook his head. The only part of Uwagami Town he knew was the main street up to the school and its surroundings. He had never made side-trips or eaten outside – he was never given the choice to go “exploring”.

Because by no means would his mother allow such a “vulgar” conduct.

Head tilted, Hikotarou said with a nonchalant voice, “Hu~n... Welp, that’s okay. Then, I’ll be your guide!”

“You know much about it?”

“This area’s my backyard!” Hikotarou said, full of confidence and grinning.

With just a step, they jumped over a stream fortified with concrete. As an unknown dog barked at them, Sukuna laughed at Hikotarou for dropping his PDA. They hopped onto the block walls and rushed through as if to sew the gaps between the houses.

All of it was a new world that Sukuna did not know about. Every time he took cuts of said world, his JP went up. He was accumulating the power to open novel worlds. Absorbed in it, Sukuna pressed the shutter over and over.

Eventually, by the time that this unfamiliar world began to dye itself in the colors of sunset, an electronic sound suddenly echoed from the PDA.

“Urgent mission concluded! The cumulative JUNGLE Points will be calculated now. Please note that any subsequent shooting will not be converted into points!”

As the end of the mission was announced, Sukuna and Hikotarou looked at each other’s faces at the same time.

“How many did you take?”

“About 200, I guess. I’ll probably rank up with this!”

As Sukuna said so, Hikotarou grinned. “Then let’s celebrate!”

Hikotarou turned around, going back the way they had come from. Sukuna followed behind him.

Two arrived at the shop with the tanuki statues that they had seen on the way. The sign that the tanuki were holding had the words “snacks shop” on it.

Sukuna stared at it in puzzlement. “What’s a snack?”

“For real?! No, well, that’s right. You’re a rich kid.”

Sukuna was offended by the disbelief in the way he spoke. However, Hikotarou opened the glass door unconcernedly and stepped into the store.

It was small and dim. The objects tightly crammed into the cupboards and baskets were all things that Sukuna did not get very well.

When he picked one up and inspected it, he found that it was a bag with richly colored gummy-like things inside. It looked like some new type of poison, but he could not rule out the possibility that it was food.

“Sukuna, you’re taking that? Then me too,” Hikotarou said, stealing it from Sukuna’s hands.

“No, hum—”

“Granny~, I’m leaving the money here~.”

“Aight~.”

Ignoring Sukuna’s voice, Hikotarou put money on the front edge of the unattended entranceway and then took cider from the refrigerator. Without time to do as much as be surprised at this innovative system, in which the owner of the shop did not have to even show her face, Sukuna was taken outside by Hikotarou and the two sat down next to the tanuki.

“My treat. We’re celebrating your raising of status!”

Being handed the colorful gummies bag, Sukuna stared fixatedly at it and opened his mouth in hesitation, “Hey, is this...”

“Edible?” was what he intended to ask, yet Hikotarou was devouring them without paying him any mind. Apparently, it was really food.

He opened the seal. If his mother knew Sukuna was eating something that had any foreign substance in it, his mother would probably pass out. That was why Sukuna closed his eyes, readied himself and threw it into his mouth.

“How is it? Good?”

As Hikotarou asked innocently, Sukuna said with an indescribable facial expression, “Tastes like chemicals.”

“That’s what’s good about it. Feel like you’re gonna get addicted to it one of these days?”

“Don’t wanna be.”

Sukuna washed his throat with the cider. Heaving a breath, he looked at the tanuki statues beside him.

“I didn’t know this kind of store existed at all.”

“Told ya that this area was my backyard, didn’t I? There’s lots of other places like this one!”

Earnestly impressed with an “eeeh”, he casually asked, “So your house is around here?”

Hikotarou’s smile instantly thinned. “Hm, well, kinda like that.”

Hikotarou’s complex facial expression caused Sukuna to hesitate asking any further, so he kept his mouth shut. It might be that he did not want to talk about his home circumstances. It was not as if Sukuna wanted to pry either.

Hikotarou was completely different from his “school friends” of until now. He knew Sukuna was a member of the Gojou family, but was not swayed by that. He saw Sukuna for what he was.

So his home circumstances did not matter.

“I see,” Sukuna replied with a mutter, looking up at the sky.

A large airship was crossing the sky, which was painted in sunset colors.

As he ate the mysterious gummy candy and drank the cider, a question left Sukuna’s mouth out of the blue, “By the way, what was so urgent in that urgent mission?”

“Eh?”

“Well, ain’t it kinda weird to make a survey of the city into an emergency? Just what’s the reason to investigate the city in such a hurry?”

Folding his arms, Hikotarou began to think. “Now that you mentioned, it’s indeed suspicious. The reward’s too high in the first place.”

“For starters, who issued that mission? I’d never heard of an urgent mission until now, y’know?”

Sukuna opened his PDA, which was in the middle of charging, tapping the “mission” tab. Even if a mission had already ended, one could check the details from the history category.

Hikotarou explained while doing the same as him, “Just like the name says, urgent missions are missions with a high level of urgency. They’re easy to spot ‘cause they come from the top of the list, but they charge a lot, so not many people issue them. To begin with, only upper rankers can activate these. Well, the one who issued it was—”

“H. N”.

That was the name of the player who had triggered the urgent mission. Apparently formed of just initials, the handle name was tasteless and dull. Even as they tried jumping to the user page, most of the information was private. There was no doubt that this was a top ranker, but they found out nothing more.

Staring in a daze at H. N.’s user page, Sukuna opened his mouth, “Since we’re at it, let’s try to guess. This guy’s objective, I mean.”

“I’m in.”

Meaning that, just as when Hikotarou’s mission and Sukuna’s JP gains had been speculated about, they would try to conclude what goal this H. N. person had that warranted issuing an urgent mission.

“It told us to take pics of the city. Is he a cameraman or something?”

“There’s no way a pro would use photos taken by amateurs. He’s better off doing it himself on that matter.”

“So, in any case, he just needed a big amount of them? He used lots of users for it ‘cause he wouldn’t be able to handle it on his own?”

“If he were taking a bunch of pics alone, he might be warned off by the police. But if it’s done in large numbers, he’d get the pics even if one or two people were caught. Besides—” Sukuna pointed to a sentence in the mission details. “Here says, ‘back alleys that aren’t on the map will give you bonuses’. So he wants info on backstreets, secret paths and the like?”

“For what?”

“The only thing that comes to mind right off the bat is, well – a preliminary investigation, I guess.”

“Of what?”

“Let’s see; some kind of data—”

“Like an escape route?”

The duo’s smiles disappeared at this casual phrase.

Those were disturbing words. As they could not grasp the whole picture, their imaginations were awfully agitated. Pulling their faces close to each other’s, the two continued the “speculation”.

“Escape route for who?”

“If he gotta run, he must be a criminal.”

“Like, say, a robber?”

“There’s government buildings here, so ain’t it more possible that he’s a terrorist?”

Silence.

The “caw, caw” cry of the crows echoed comically. The two burst into laughter at the same time.

“N-No way! There’s no chance that’d be it!”

“Y-Yeah! None, none! No way there’d be terrorists in Japan!”

While laughing, they were aware there a somewhat dry ring was mixed in it. Indeed, something of that sort was, first of all, probably impossible. However, it was not as if it did not exist.

Most importantly, there was nothing they could do now. They had already submitted the photos. No matter what H. N. was scheming, they could do nothing about it.

Even so, unable to erase the vague fear he had once acquired, Sukuna peeked at his PDA. In that moment, a fanfare-like sound played from the PDA. A holographic image of a deformed parrot character – Jumpy – appeared, dancing around Sukuna and Hikotarou’s general area.

“Urgent mission accomplished! 2745 points added to your JUNGLE Points! Rank up! Five has been promoted to JUNGLE L-ranker. Congratulations.”

Just like dates changed, the rank display in his own page was replaced with a flashing noise. From E-ranker to L-ranker. Along with that, the functions that had been restricted until now were unlocked as well. New rank mission ordering rights, mission activation rights, AR function usage rights—

Sukuna felt that his world had expanded yet again.

When he looked to the side, Hikotarou was raising his cider bottle with a cheerful smile.

“Congrats on your promotion, Sukuna!”

“Thanks.”

As Sukuna gave a lopsided smile, he and Hikotarou had a toast with their cider bottles.

Yeah, that’s right.

JUNGLE was the source of Sukuna’s power. It was a window that showed a new world to someone like him, who was bound hand and foot by his parents and simply made to walk the rails that had been decided for him.

No matter how shady it was, he could not think of losing it. That was about as terrifying as losing Hikotarou.

“Hey? Sukuna?”

He came to his senses. It seemed Hikotarou was calling him.

“A-Aah. What is it?”

“Just wondering how the cat Nine is going.”

“Aah, he’s so well that it’s a problem. He climbed on my shoulder a while ago—”

“Eh~, what’s up with that? He’s never done that with me!”

Laughing at Hikotarou’s sullen face, Sukuna said, “Then come see him next time. He’ll be happy too, for sure!”

“Yeah, true. One of these days.” Hikotarou laughed faintly, filling his mouth with cider.

◆

He woke up early that day.

“6AM?” as he whispered, a yawn came out. Sukuna turned off his PDA, put it in his sleepwear’s pocket and got up from his bed.

He had to wake up earlier than usual ever since bringing Nine in. That was the expected, as he was the only one looking after it. He had to set up a time to take care of Nine before going to and after returning from school.

He quietly slipped out of his bedroom and headed to the first floor, sneaking out through the window of an unused guest room. He had secured this “escape route” by making use of Grass Root. He picked places where the servants would not be and times when they would not be around, rushing within the stipulated period.

Therefore, he was at ease. He had made sure that by no means would anyone find out about it.

Upon opening the door, Sukuna learned that this was nothing but an assumption.

Nine had disappeared from the shack.

His heart resounded with a strong thump.

He wondered if it was hiding somewhere. It was a kitten. It might have crawled into a spot that would not cross his mind.

However, he could not find such a breach anywhere in the shack. Neither could he hear its voice. It would always come crying loudly and cling to Sukuna whenever he arrived.

There was only an empty basket and a blanket that had grown cold in there.

He peeked into the bowl that he had filled to the brim with water. It had not decreased in the slightest. Was it not going thirsty or hungry, wherever it was? For starters, where had it even gone? His own expression full of anxiety was reflected over the water in the bowl.

As he looked at himself in blank amazement, a sweet voice coiled around him from behind, “Sukuna.”

His body trembled with a start.

As he turned around with eyes wide-open, his mother was standing at the shack’s entrance. Her red lips were forming a smile. Both her arms were holding a basket with a pure-white kitten on it.

“If you want something, you can just tell your mother.”

Grinning at him while he was motionless as if frozen, Sukuna’s mother left the basket with the white kitten by his feet. Not making the littlest movement, the white kitten stared fixatedly ahead, as if already disciplined to do so.

Words finally spilled from his dry mouth, “Where’s Nine?”

His mother tilted her head, but after catching on, she at last said, “If you mean that filthy one, it has been disposed of.” She spoke while smiling, “You wanted a cat, right, Sukuna? If so, you should purchase a proper one.”

Her hand caressed Sukuna’s hair. As though she were admiring a treasure.

“You mustn’t touch such a dirty stray cat like that one. What if you were scratched and contracted some disease? My dear Sukuna, I can’t let you do that.”

Sukuna looked down at the white kitten. It was well-manneredly, quietly sitting in the basket. There was a luxury accessory, adorned with a golden chain and red ribbon, fitted around its neck.

It was a choker.

While he was looking down at the kitten, a dark emotion gushed forth within Sukuna. It was a sensation that he had tasted countless times until now. When those people had tried to provide him friends. When he found out that those people were watching his room. That was the feeling that welled up inside.

He had managed to swallow it down until now. He had been able to control it. Because he was aware, somewhere in his heart, that there would be no going back once he laid it bare.

But he believed that, if he gulped it down now, something within him would definitely end up broken.

Therefore, Sukuna reached out and took the bowl full of water in his hand. As he glared at his mother, the smile disappeared from her red lips. Fear did not surge even as he saw this. More strongly than that, the dark emotion – “hatred” – was filling Sukuna from the inside.

“WHO—” He swung up the water bowl. “—SAID I WANTED A CAT?!!”

Sukuna slammed it at the kitten.

The bowl did not hit it directly. It collided with the nearby wall, bouncing off a big splash. Struck by said splash, the kitten let out a cry and jumped off the basket. It ran to a corner of the shack and gazed up at Sukuna as if scared of him.

When he saw that look, the dark feeling was gone like a retracting tide.

The kitten was not at fault for anything. It was simply brought here unknowing of anything and made into a replacement for some stranger. It was shameful and pathetic of him to take his anger out on it. He felt like he had become the same kind of person as his mother. Sukuna sensed that his own hatred was aimed at himself.

On the other hand—

Any facial expression had vanished from his mother’s face. She was as expressionless as a Noh mask. Lips sewed into a thin line, she stared intently at Sukuna.

Sukuna did not return the gaze. However, he did not attempt to explain himself either. It was not that he feared doing so. But because he was repulsed of even speaking to her.

After a moment of silence that could be deemed as an eternity, his mother muttered in a few words, “Really? I see.” She then turned on her heels, exiting the dim shack.

Left behind, Sukuna did nothing. He crouched on the spot, burying his face in-between his knees. Recalling Nine’s voice whenever it called for him, the softness of its fur whenever it snuck up to him and the ticklishness of its breath whenever it sniffed him, Sukuna cried with his shoulders shaking.

The white kitten was observing Sukuna.

◆

The next day, Sukuna found the collar that the white kitten had been wearing inside his residence’s trashcan.

That was what happened to the things Sukuna said he did not want.

◆

What should he say to Hikotarou? Lying on his bed, that was all Sukuna could think about.

The answer did not come to him. There was no way it would. The one who had offered to take in the kitten Nine, which Hikotarou found and had been taking care of, was Sukuna himself. There was no way he could tell him that his parents had found out about it and gotten rid of it.

Ever since losing Nine, Sukuna had secluded himself in his room, refusing to go to school or even eat, thinking about this all the while. His parents had knocked on his door and spoken words mixed with persuasion, and every time he heard their voices, he desperately had to overcome the urge to clear them away using the ESP App.

What should he say to Hikotarou? This question without an answer occurred to him whenever he opened JUNGLE and saw messages from Hikotarou piling up.

Amidst his spiraling thoughts, Sukuna became someone who did nothing but fiddle with his PDA. After all, he was able to escape from this reality just by staring at the several lined-up missions in JUNGLE.

The reality was catching up quickly.

It was no coincidence that Sukuna had activated Grass Root at that moment. He was wary of his parents perhaps trying to force him out of the room if he kept shutting himself in it.

Only the security surveillance cameras of the lowest floor could be viewed on Grass Root, but it could detect if someone were to break through the door of his room. He had not decided what to do when that happened, but he imagined that he would likely have to use an item from the ESP App.

However, that did not happen.

The one projected in the surveillance camera was not the robust guard-man. It was a man clad in a wrinkly suit and a boy who he was bringing with him.

“Hikotarou? Why...?”

With the words that he had whispered in a daze, Sukuna awoke at once. There was no “why”. It was because his parents had found out that Hikotarou existed.

Sukuna felt goosebumps. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door of his bedroom, but gave up on opening it.

There were lookouts on the other side. His mother had arranged a sleepless watch so that she could deal with Sukuna whenever he came out. If he came out, he would quickly be caught and transferred somewhere else. And then, he would never get to see Hikotarou again.

The door’s no good. I need a different means of escape—

He looked back. Outside the window, he could see the trunk of a garden tree about three meters away. Even if one jumped off the windowsill, they would not be able to reach it.

That was the case for ordinary humans. However, Sukuna was a JUNGLE player.

Taking out his PDA, he opened it without hesitation. He activated the item “physical strengthening”, which was within the power of L-rankers.

Instantaneously, a green electric current burst out from the PDA, ran through Sukuna’s whole body and then disappeared into thin air. However, that strength remained within Sukuna. Each time his heart struck a beat, a force that was not his own circulated his blood vessels, his muscles absorbing it.

A countdown appeared on his PDA. He did not know the reasoning behind it, but once this period was over, his power would be gone as well.

In short, he had no time to waste.

Sukuna opened the window and jumped up. The unbelievable jumping power more than compensated for the three meters. The momentum was so strong that he almost missed the tree trunk, spiraling around it when he reached out and clung to it. His eyes spinning from the gymnast-like maneuver, Sukuna jumped from branch to branch and landed as if rolling down.

Sukuna broke into a run barefoot.

It was not as if he could do anything by running. Sukuna’s parents would not listen to his opinions. Rather, they may consider Hikotarou even more dangerous as a cause of his rebellion against them.

However, he had a feeling that he would resent it for the rest of his life if he just watched the current situation with a finger in his mouth.

From the position of the surveillance cameras, he calculated the place where Hikotarou would be at right now. It was one of the normally unused reception rooms. He ran along the outer walls, taking a wide turn around the mansion. Holding onto the reception room’s window, he quietly peeked inside.

And so, Sukuna experienced a lifelong regret.

“Good job on your report,” his father said, sitting on an extravagant chair.

The middle-aged man and Hikotarou were standing opposite to him, on the other side of the office desk. The middle-aged man was giving his father a toadying smile. Hikotarou, standing next to him, was merely staring at his toes with a mask-like expressionless face.

Sukuna’s heart began to beat copiously fast. If he kept looking at this scene, he would lose something important. Even though he knew this, he was unable to take his eyes off it.

“You might be poor, but since you have enough brains to be able to talk to him as an equal, we have selected you to be his friend as a special case.”

Sukuna’s breath caught. The conversation he was hearing through the window was as vague as a nightmare, with no sense of reality to it.

“Make sure to do your job modest and humbly. I have already transferred this month’s payment.”

“Thank you very much! Hey, you show gratitude too.”

While bowing repeatedly, the middle-aged man put his hand on the back of Hikotarou’s head and squeezed it with force. Unresisting, Hikotarou let himself be handled and bowed his head. He weakly muttered incoherent words.

He was extending his gratitude. To Sukuna’s father. To the power of the Gojou household.

His father leaned his body against the backrest and looked down at the two. “However, your interactions seem to be going too far lately. My wife is worried that Sukuna might have become defiant due to bad influence from you.”

The face of the middle-aged man quickly turned pale.

“Who was it that put in word so that someone from the fallen Kue family could somehow attend that school? I would like you to be a bit more aware of that.”

“M-My deepest apologies! Hey, you!”

The middle-aged man grabbed Hikotarou’s head violently. Hikotarou let him do as he pleased. He was mumbling something – perhaps apologizing?

Enough already. I don’t wanna see any more of this.

He did not want to see Hikotarou – his friend – like that. Still, in the end, that “friend” was also nothing more than something those people had arranged for him.

After watching Hikotarou receive punishment for a moment, his father raised his hand. “Do that somewhere my eyes can’t reach.”

“Yes! I-I always—”

“Enough of that. Sukuna is what matters now.”

Hearing the name, Hikotarou sluggishly raised his head.

“He has been confining himself in his bedroom all the time lately. I called you here to convince Sukuna. Talk him into it and bring him out of his room.”

“O-Of course! Hiko! Get ready at once!”

“Hum.” At that moment, Hikotarou’s voice sounded clear for the first time. “Sukuna has been absent from school all this time... Is he sick or something like that?”

Snorting, Sukuna’s father narrowed his eyes as if to poke fun at Hikotarou. “There seems to be no problem with his health. Apparently, he had picked a stray cat recently. By the looks of it, he got angry because we disposed of it. Honestly, children are so...”

Hikotarou went stiff. His small hands balled into fists.

“If he wants a replacement, we can provide anything he wishes. So hurry and do something about this. It will be bad for our reputation if the current situation continues as it is.”

Hearing the words of his father, who thought of no one but himself, Sukuna slammed the windowsill with his hand, reinforced by JUNGLE’s superhuman abilities. The only one who noticed the sound was Hikotarou. His eyes alone moved, taking in Sukuna’s figure. Their gazes met for just an instant. Yet Sukuna would probably never forget those wide-open eyes.

Sukuna peeled his body away from the window. He had lost all reason to stay in that place.

The “physical strengthening” was still within its effect time. Making full use of that power, he ran. Tears spilled as he rushed through the estate’s garden.

That was the first friend he had made ever since he was born. For the first time ever since being born, he had admired someone and thought of him as even cooler than himself. He had taught Sukuna about many things. Such as the enormous power that he had never even imagined and a new world that he had never so much as noticed, even though it was lying right next to him. He deemed the memories of breathing in the air of freedom and of playing around shoulder-to-shoulder with him as brightly sparkling jewels.

However, they were not jewels but glass marbles arranged for him by the adults.

He had nothing. The resounding beating of his heart, the new world that shone so vividly – everything had disappeared. Right now, the all that surrounded Sukuna were adults so filthy they made him want to throw up, as well as the fakes they had provided for him—

No.

“That’s not true,” Sukuna muttered little by little.

At the same time, an electronic voice echoed from the PDA in his hand, “The effect time of item ‘Physical Strengthening’ has expired. If you wish to extend the effect time, please add extra JUNGLE Points—”

“Extend effect.”

“Voiceprint authentication confirmed. Consuming JUNGLE Points in order to maintain effect duration.”

Hikotarou was a fake. A fake that his parents had prepared for him. Whenever he was with Sukuna or whenever he laughed, he had been probably making a fool out of Sukuna deep down.

Nevertheless, it was not as if everything was fake.

Only this power, JUNGLE, was real. True strength. A tangible world. Beyond that window, a new world was spreading out. That was the sole truth.

And right now, having wiped the tears away, Sukuna was seeing yet another world.

In that world, Sukuna was free. Sukuna was lonely. Having lost his only friend, Sukuna figured that there was no longer anything chaining him to that place now. The exciting world that he had once had a glimpse of together with Hikotarou was lost forever, and the only thing spreading out before Sukuna was a desolated, perishing world.

Yet he had no options anymore but to jump into it.

Strengthening this resolve, Sukuna set forth while gritting his back teeth.

◆

On the day that Sukuna used JUNGLE’s superhuman abilities to the fullest, stealing everything he could take and vanishing from the Gojou house, a large number of thieves attacked Uwagami Town.

Multiple government officials’ homes were raided at the same time. After suppressing the police officers guarding them as if it were nothing, the thieves robbed all houses of information related to secrets of the state and disappeared into the back streets and alleys of Uwagami Town.

The Metropolitan Police Department identified the case as a large-scale beta case due to the clear criminal techniques and the testimony of police officers describing them as “physical abilities that would usually be impossible”. The command of the investigation was transferred to Scepter 4.

Sukuna only came to know about it much later.

#k project #kprojectedit #k side green #gojou sukuna #sukuna gojou #k #kue hikotarou #gohands #gora #novel #my translation

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dsoe-masteroftheheavenlyyard · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 2–Hunt for the Deadly Sins; Scene 3

master of the heavenly yard pages 18-28

It was currently nighttime, and there were no artificial lights anywhere in the desolate field they could rely on.

Even so, as there were no buildings to block the light of the moon it actually wasn’t all that hard to see.

--Just as Allen had been when he first came here, Nemesis seemed unable to believe the scenery before her.

“How…could this be? The Millennium Tree Forest was destroyed along with the rest of the world—no, it was burned down even earlier than that. So how…”

The trees were flourishing in abundance.

As though they had never been destroyed at all.

It was undoubtedly strange, considering everything they had seen up to arriving here was wasteland.

“There’s no cause for finding it so unusual, Nemesis. To put it in layman’s terms…These exist here under the same principles as that clinic did.”

Nemesis seemed to immediately understand when she heard Allen’s explanation

“The specialty clinic in the illusory Moscow that Levia Barisol created…I see. Thoughts can materialize in the Hellish Yard…In other words this too is an illusion created by souls—"

“You catch on quick. Not that I’d expect any less from the original ‘Master of the Hellish Yard’.”

“My…so you know that much, do you?”

Allen pointed up to the moon in the sky.

“I studied everything about this world inside the ‘Blackbox’ up there. So I understand most of what’s going on.”

“You studied ‘everything’ but you only understand ‘most’ of it?”

“I’m not as smart as you. That, and there are some things I couldn’t study with the black box.”

“Such as?”

“The gods call this world the ‘Third Period’. The black box taught me about events that occurred there. But…I wasn’t able to get much information on the world before, the ‘Second Period’ where the gods lived.”

“Assuming it was Sickle who created that ‘Blackbox’…That information was probably left out on purpose. Well, it sounds like something she’d do, anyway.”

“…?” Allen made a curious expression. “Is Sickle—a girl?”

“By my reconning at least.”

“I see…I always thought he was male. Well, at any rate, you would know more about the ‘Second Period’ than me.”

“And that’s why you brought me along on your journey.”

“There is that, and I also was wanting to borrow the connections you’ve built up over your long life. There’s a lot of souls on the ground world now that lived in the past. Naturally, a lot of them are people I’ve never met.” Allen looked back to the forest before them. “For example, the spirits that live in this forest. I didn’t even know they existed back when I was alive. However…That’s not the case with you.”

“The spirits—are still residing here in the forest?”

“Yeah. This forest itself was something they conjured up.”

Nemesis reached out to put a hand on a nearby tree branch.

Despite it being an illusion, she was able to touch it. It felt peculiarly rough…It certainly “existed”, but it gave across a somewhat strange sensation that felt unstable to her.

She noticed something moving at the edges of her vision, and turned toward it. A single fox was gazing at her, but the moment Nemesis saw it, it quickly hid itself in the shadow of the tree.

Phaser…

Nemesis remembered that fox’s name. She was certain it was one of the spirits that lived in the forest—or would it be more accurate to say “people”?

Whichever it was, she knew this one to have an affable personality. That they refused to come near in spite of that must be because she was in this form, Nemesis thought to herself.

I am…the one responsible for destroying the forest, after all.

Nemesis turned back to Allen.

“Is Michaela coming back here?”

Allen shook his head.

“If she’d intended to do so, she would have come along with us.”

“That’s true. So this forest is currently—”

“Being managed not by Michaela, but a proxy.”

In that next moment, they could hear someone’s voice from above their heads.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit harsh to treat me as a mere ‘proxy’, Allen?”

A single blue bird flew above them. It was the bird that had spoken just then.

“That voice, and that manner of speaking…Professor Held!?”

Nemesis’ eyes widened.

“If you’re calling me ‘Professor’, then…Your memory has come back.”

“Yeah, it’s all returned, thank you…Why do you look like that?”

“Various reasons. By all rights I was unable to materialize on the ground world due to my restrictions. As a result of tirelessly endeavoring to slip through a loophole in those rules, I wound up as this bluebird.” Held selected a branch on one of the trees and landed there. “By the way…What is it I ought to call you?”

“Nemesis is fine.”

“I see. Then, dictator Nemesis—you’re guilty of quite the horrendous deed, aren’t you? The reckless act of firing the weapon of mass destruction ‘Punishment’ at the world and bringing it to an end.”

Nemesis felt no fear at Held’s grave words.

“I don’t feel like apologizing for it. As you well know, that was my goal from the very start. You and Hazuki laid all sorts of groundwork to avoid it, but it looks like it that was all in vain.”

“You wished not for ‘management’ but ‘destruction’…So, as we feared, your mind was already infected with ‘malice’.”

“So what if it was? If you want to kill me you’re welcome to do so.”

“I have no intention of holding you responsible for that now. That wouldn’t bring the world back. …And besides, I’ve come to be increasingly less certain as I’ve watched you, Seth, and that girl Irina—all of you who have been reduced to ‘HER’s.”

“Less certain of what?”

“—Just what in the world ‘evil’ is.”

Nemesis was wordless for a moment at such an abstract question.

Allen silently listened to the two of them speak from the side. He wasn’t boorish enough to cut into an exchange between “gods”.

“…Evil is—” Finally Nemesis opened her mouth. “—Those who won’t obey the established ‘rules’. Those who disrupt order. That’s the basics of it, right?”

“Then what about Gallerian and Riliane’s case? They were the ones who created the ‘rules’, after all.”

“I said ‘rules’ to be brief, but there’s many applications of that. Rules of countries, rules of the court, personal rules, or…the rules of gods. Occasionally those contradict each other. In that case—the rules of the one who wins out in the end are taken as just.”

“So you’re saying that you aren’t ‘evil’.”

“Correct. I’m the winner.”

“…Is that really so? It’s true that you’re the sole living thing in the world. But…It’s still possible for the dead to kill the living.” Held looked up at the night sky. “If you wish to become the true ‘winner’…I would advise you do something about that.”

At that moment, Nemesis finally noticed it.

On the other end of Held’s gaze, floating high in the air, was a peculiar object illuminated by the light of the moon.

“That’s…it can’t be! What’s that doing here?!”

It was an enormous “black box”.

If Nemesis’ eyes weren’t deceiving her, that was without a doubt a “Blackbox”—a piece of technology from the Second Period.

“Is that an illusion someone conjured up too?”

“It can’t be. Who could think one up, given it didn’t exist in the Third Period?”

Upon hearing those words, Nemesis immediately turned to Allen.

“Nope, it wasn’t me.” Allen denied firmly, shaking his head and waving his hands. “And that ‘Blackbox’ looks a bit different in construction from the one I’m familiar with.”

There were several types of “Blackbox” that Nemesis knew about.

The one floating in the air just then was—

It’s unlike the Type E, as well as the Type L that I made. The closest I can think of is…the Type S!

The second edition device created by the physicist Seth Twiright.

That was the “Type S”.

But the Type S wasn’t loaded onto the spaceship “Climb One” that we’d been riding on. It shouldn’t be in this world—

And there Nemesis recalled an event in her past.

A battle between sorceresses that had occurred in Merrigod Plateau…That phrase that had been spoken by the Red Cat Sorceress.

…She had called the device that was installed in her chest cavity a “Blackbox Type S”. If that was a “Blackbox” that Seth made in this world—

If that “black box” up there was no illusion, but the real deal.

There was a chance that Seth had created it in secret.

Though I’d no inkling of him making such a thing while he was with me—or rather, Nemesis—at the very least. Perhaps when he was in the Hellish Yard before…But then, I can’t imagine Gumillia would have allowed it.

It might have been fastest for her to just ask Seth, but given that he wasn’t around at the moment she couldn’t do that either.

“How about we try getting close to it for now?”

Allen nodded at Nemesis’ suggestion. “That might be best.”

“We’ll just head to ‘Evils Theater’ later…”

“—It looks like we might not have to.”

Allen pointed above the “black box” in the air.

It would be more clearly visible if this were during the day, but…it appeared that something else was floating there.

Nemesis strained her eyes, trying to confirm what she was seeing.

And once she understood his response, she was shocked once again.

“…I don’t get any of this. How is a theater floating above the ‘Blackbox’?”

“I guess that looks bizarre to you too, huh?”

“I could say the same for the ‘Blackbox’, but…A heavy building like that floating in the air should be completely impossible under Third Period technology, at the very least. Even if it’s an illusion, it’s just completely uncalled for to deliberately have it floating in space. It’s like a child made it up.”

“…Surprisingly enough, that might be accurate.”

“…?”

“I mean that theater might be an illusion brought about by a child, or else someone with a child-like personality. In any case, we should probably go see it first.”

“Quite right.” Nemesis approached the blue bird that was sitting blasé on the tree branch. “With that, we’ll be leaving soon.”

“Hmph…You alright leaving without saying anything to your friends?”

“—They aren’t the ‘Climb One’ crewmembers anymore. They’ve lost their memories, and live in this world as spirits.”

“True…But there are exceptions. Those who have regained their former memories.”

Nemesis didn’t need to ask him who those “exceptions” were. She had a pretty good idea of who that applied to, and also knew that none of them were in this forest right then.

Rather, she had something else that she needed to ask him.

“One last thing…Professor Held. Why did you become the ‘Great Land God Held’?”

“…? What do you mean?”

“You were against us managing the new world. That was the reason why we wound up fighting each other. And yet despite that—”

“You can’t understand it. You’re wondering then what in the world were we fighting over.”

“—Yeah.”

“…It was the ‘Moon Goddess’s idea. I—no, none of us, could go against her. …Now then, I think you best be off.”

And at that, Held finally stopped talking completely.

It was as though he had turned into a mere bird, that would not reply no matter what Nemesis said.

“…Farewell, Professor Held.”

“…”

Nemesis reluctantly said goodbye to Held, and went to move on ahead with Allen.

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