#the humans they send away STILL TELL EVERYONE AND GET THE CLAN CHASED OFF

[lillotte17]

I'm replaying DA:I, because of course I am, and I have just got to say that 10 years later I am still so salty about the retcon about the handling of Dalish mages. I seriously cannot fathom why they made that choice, it goes against everything we learned about Dalish culture in the first 2 games. EVERYTHING.

Dalish Origin in DA:O shows you that while somewhat insular, Dalish clans are FIERCELY protective of their individual members. Mahariel and Tamlen are just two hunters, but Keeper Marethari has the whole clan wait for Mahariel to recover (which takes several days at least) and then for them to mount a search and rescue for Tamlen, all while the threat of the nearby village sending soldiers to chase the clan off is looming over your heads. Zathrien's clan seems to have a similar mentality. Everyone knows everyone and even if they don't get along, they protect and care for one another. They are family. A single death is felt by everyone. One person leaving the clan is a reason for everyone to mourn. Children are cherished. Magic is precious. They wouldn't simply throw someone out into the cold, especially not a child.

In DAII, Marethari once again has the whole clan waiting in an unsafe place, hoping Merrill will change her mind and come home. Although she is the Keeper, it's not like the rest of the clan has no say in this. They all want her to come back. And they accept Feynriel and help him with his magic, despite him being half human.

Granted, you could make the argument that not all the clans are the same and some of them aren't as close or caring as the clans we've seen in the first 2 games, but even in DA:I, Keeper Deshanna writes to the Inquisition, hoping they will send Lavellan back to them and trying to smooth out any cultural misunderstandings that might have happened. She's clearly ready to extend whatever power she has to keep them safe, and get them back home.

I think it would bother me less if there was more of a mix in terms of how other characters spoke about Dalish customs, but literally every single character who has something to say about it tells you that clans dumping kids with magic in the woods alone is a common practice, and it just... It makes NO sense. Sure, maybe a few clans do it, but for it to be COMMON? No. They need to keep the clan numbers up, and they NEED to ensure that they have mages in the clan at all times. Their whole ideology is that their gods will return when they are 'true' elves again, and part of that is HAVING MAGIC. It makes no sense. It makes NO sense for them to just throw away children to let them starve in the woods. And why? to avoid Templars?? Do the Templars keep track of where every Dalsih clan is moving at all times?? How??? That doesn't make sense either.

Listening to Minaeve makes me CRAZY because she's so bitter (understandably) about what happened, but like...baby girl you were seven and traumatized, and the Chantry actively hates the Dalish and tried to wipe them out (repeatedly). Are you sure what you think happened is what actually happened, and not what they told you happened???

I dunno man, I just hate that rewrite a lot. I hope the new characters are proud of their heritage and setting the record straight about this kind of thing.

[nieloxychen]

you know how sometimes you read an opinion post in fandom and youre like torn between wanting to respect everyones opinion bc not everyone can know everything and perhaps their interpretation relied on half remembered or not fully thought through ideas. but youre also like HOLY SHIT YOURE WRONG YOURE SO WRONG I CANT EVEN DESCRIBE HOW WRONG YOU ARE YOURE ACTUALLY JUST BEING AN ASSHOLE WTF

[thevikingwoman]

(Talesfromthefade) Goldenrod, marketplace, the gloaming, streetlights?

Thank you! This is a very old prompt, but I'll use it to follow up on an even older story :P. For @dadrunkwriting.

Set after Dirt, where Solas proposes to Iwyn while visiting her clan after they reunited. For those who don't know, Branwen is Iwyn's little brother.

Fandom: Dragon Age. Words: 685

Solas x Iwyn Lavellan, Iwyn Lavellan & Raina Lavellan | post-reunion | romance, friendship Rating: G. Love, family, friendship.

Soar

“So, how you doing? Really doing, Iwyn?”

Raina puts their drinks down, and sits down across from Iwyn. The table, tucked away in a corner of the marketplace, was miraculously empty when Iwyn found it. Solas is off getting their food, leaving Raina and Iwyn alone. That was probably on purpose, though Iwyn isn’t sure if Raina or Solas orchestrated it.

“I’m good, Raina. Everything has calmed down a little. I still get invitations for Orlesian nobles, or the Enchanters College, or something else, but Skyhold is thriving. We have had so many elves come to live and work there.”

She’s proud of the work she’s done, leveraging her influence to create a free city, for Dalish and City Elves both. Humans, Tal-Vashoth and dwarves are welcome too, but mostly it’s a place where no one should live in fear.

Raina takes a sip of her beer.

“That’s not what I meant. I mean it’s good, Iwyn, it’s great. I’m going to visit and all, but how are you? And you know…”

Raina tosses her head towards the market’s food stalls, her curls flying about her head.

“Solas.”

“Yeah. The guy who left you, leaving you angry and depressed and I don’t know what, in a way I’ve never seen before. And who apparently is the thing the Keeper; all the Hahrens, warn us all about.”

“Solas is not a thing.”

“You know what I mean, and don’t deflect.”

“I was fine, it was – we needed to work things out.”

“You might have fooled everyone else, but I know you Iwyn. I’ve known you forever. You weren’t really calm.”

Raina reaches across the table, and squeezes her hand.

“If you’re that good at knowing me, then you should know we’re good now. It’s good.” Iwyn glances across the bustle of Wycome Market, elves and humans mostly, but others too. Solas is a shadow in the twilight, bald head and broad shoulders, waiting for their Antivan flatbreads. “As for the Dread Wolf thing – even after everything, it’s hard to understand. Living, sleeping, for so long. I don’t expect it will be easy for others. I just want to protect him.”

“Oh, Iwyn.” Raina threads her fingers through Iwyn’s. “Don’t worry, I’ll be nice to him. As long as he doesn’t hurt you again, of course.”

“Thank you.” She pauses. Somehow it shouldn’t feel like a big deal, when they’ve chosen this path together in so many other ways, but somehow it is. “Solas asked me to marry him. Last night.”

“What? Are you serious? What did you say? Did you tell anyone? Congratulations! When is the wedding?”

Iwyn laughs, happiness bubbling through her. She agreed with Solas not to talk to anyone yet, but Raina is her oldest friend, and while she knows she will win her family over, it might take a little work. She’s happy to have Raina in her corner.

“I did say yes, and we didn’t tell anyone, yet, and I’ve no idea. About the wedding.”

“Yay!” Raina launches herself halfway across the table, embracing Iwyn. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Hello? The food is ready.” Solas puts down the flatbread, mouthwatering smell of tomato and basil and bread around them.

“Congratulations!” Raina exclaims.

“Ah. Thank you.”

“I told her,” Iwyn says. She kisses his cheek.

“Mmm, I’m starving.” Raina pulls a slice of bread from the tray and takes a bite. Brandishing the piece at Solas, she continues when she’s done chewing. “If you hurt her again, I’ll chase you across the void, Dread Wolf.”

“Noted.”

They eat for a while, enjoying the food.

“So you haven’t told Branwen, yet? Or your parents?”

“No. They’ll come around though,” Iwyn says.

“Maybe we can send a letter?” Solas asks.

“No,” Iwyn says.

“Don’t worry. You got me in your corner now,” Raina says.

“Thank you, Raina.”

Behind them, the lamplighter uses his magic on the streetlights as they sputter to life. Iwyn kisses Solas again, and he blushes. Life continues around them, laughter and beer and somewhere someone plays a fiddle. No one pays any heed to three elves sharing a meal.

[remmushound]

Curse of the Clan part 59! @selfindulgenz @scentedcandlecryptid

There Michelangelo stood before Krang, the giant blob of a being rearing up with help of the wires that supported his gelatinous flesh as it spilled over in thick folds. Michelangelo stepped as far away from the alien as he could, ruby eyes locked on the yokai and trying his best not to let fear shine in them. But Krang knew better; he knew Michelangelo was afraid. He could taste it. Immediately he started to poke and prod into Michelangelo’s mind, just as he had with Donatello during their lovely stay in the forest.

Michelangelo whined and clutched at his head when a sensation not unlike a needle pierced through it. His legs lost sensation, and his thoughts were scattered like leaves on the wind. His heartbeat was like the drums of war pounding inside of him but that wasn’t the only thing that drowned his senses because there was something else, something evil, something poking around in his head that shouldn’t have been! The feeling was anything but pleasant, but no matter how much Michelangelo squeezed his head to try and force it out, it wouldn’t go away.

The voice was inside the cavern of his skull, vibrating along his brain and making his entire body shake and his vision go dark.

“You’re more resistant than the purple one…” The voice inside Michelangelo’s head said, and there came a cold tingle up Michelangelo’s arm that settled around his throat like a noose. “I wonder if you’ll last as long as he did…”

“You… hurt… my… brother…” The words were hard to force out, as heavy on his tongue as a ten pound weight, but he refused to let them stay.

“And it was fun.” The voice was in his left ear, and then his right. “And it was easy. Because he was soft…”

“You take that BACK!” With Michelangelo’s defiant roar and a swipe of his flaming kusari, the cold force prodding him was knocked back.

Krang was slammed back into his body with a furious snarl, a scowl creeping over his features as he rubbed his head with a fore-tentacle. Michelangelo’s aura was strong, a truthful passion powerful enough to form a force field around the box turtle. Krang laughed.

“Donnie is just as strong as I am!” Michelangelo growled, his eyes glowing gems.

The darkness closed in again, and this time Krang was braced for the power that the orange turtle radiated, and he was able to penetrate it. His grip on Michelangelo’s psyche tightened, and bit by bit he pulled out everything he needed and weaved it to fit his own desire.

Michelangelo and Leonardo were back in that supermarket, running from the Gumbus as it chased them down the aisles. They were seperated from April and they were alone, well alone together at least, and they needed to hide. They spotted a place, and they both dived for it, but… Michelangelo didn't make it.

No, that wasn’t right. Leonardo had grabbed him and pulled him into shelter! Michelangelo was sure he had! Why was he thinking of this anyway? It wasn’t unlike him to blank out, drawn into the spiraling colors of his own mind, but this time it seemed far more misplaced than usual, and the memory was wrong! Why was it wrong? No no no, Leonardo had helped him, not left him to the beast—

Michelangelo fell to his knees as another nightmare forced its way to the front of his mind. Him and Donatello, together behind the bushes watching Todd’s RV before they knew the friendly capybara. Whispering to each other. Todd sneaking up behind them and scaring them near out of their shells, and what Michelangelo should have remembered was both him and Donatello scattering, but what came forth through like a crudely patched pair of jeans was Donatello shoving his little brother to the ground and leaving him there for the apparent ‘Spine Breaking Bandit’ to seize.

“Your mind is strong…” Krang’s voice came with a rush of nausea, “I wonder: Is your body the same?”

Michelangelo throwing a boat, using all the power he could summon. His brothers should have praised him, but instead came their vicious scolds and hurtful words and the insults made Michelangelo drop the boat and—

“Is your love for your brothers…?”

Michelangelo wanted to go on his first solo mission. Instead of supporting him, all three of his brothers surrounded him like cruel silhouettes, laughing and pointing and mocking the bravery that tried to shine. Their words and faces twisted with hatred spiraled in Michelangelo’s mind and let nothing else through.

“...too little…”

“...too weak…”

“...too dumb…”

“...all heart…”

“...no brain…”

“You need to grow up.” The voices of all three brothers melted into one. Michelangelo was crying. His brothers wouldn’t say that, his brothers wouldn’t be mean, his brothers loved him

“Or your father?” Krang taunted further. “Would you still love him…?”

Now this was a memory Michelangelo couldn’t recall. It was a place he knew, Draxum’s lab, but it wasn’t the way it was when he had briefly saw it years ago. It was different, older yet newer at the same time. Shiny and alive and now dancing with fire that swallowed everything in his path. He was helpless, the smoke choking and burning his senses. And he saw someone there, his father Lou Jitsu, grabbing items from Draxum’s shelves and tossing them into the flames to ensure their destruction. Michelangelo started to cry; he was a baby, what else could he have done? He reached out for the man and for a moment Lou Jitsu had looked his way, the eyes soft and kind as Michelangelo knew them to be. Then came the veil of hatred pulled over as the flames swallowed Lou Jitsu and he disappeared, leaving Draxum’s experiments to burn up. All of Draxum’s experiments.

“No…” Michelangelo said; he was on his knees now and dreadfully cold. “No… that… that didn't happen!”

“Didn't it…?”

Did it…? All of Michelangelo’s memories were so twisted, so mixed up, that he couldn’t tell what was true and what was a lie and what had happened and what hadn’t happened. He knew his brothers wouldn’t do that but they did do that, he saw them, they were in his head! In his head… it was all in his head, it was all a game, all a lie, everything. Did his brothers really hate him? Did his father despise him? Did Draxum and April and CJ and everyone else think so lowly of him?! Did they...

Michelangelo was cold. He recognized it now. The stinging bite pierced through his skin, and that was something he knew was a lie. Though the sensations pricked and burned at his mind and body, he wasn’t shivering. He hadn’t been cold in Japan and he certainly wouldn’t be cold here. That was a lie. He remembered Knight’s words, that Krang could only tell lies. Maybe the truth could hurt him?

“You’re lying…” Michelangelo said lowly, and the truth cut worse than a knife through Krang.

“What…?” Krang’s face distorted in recoil.

“Your name isn’t Krang, it’s… Knave. And my brothers don’t hate me either…” Michelangelo stood a little straighter, bringing his burning eyes to meet Knave’s. “Or my friends. They’re taking down your ship right now…”

Michelangelo’s voice carried a storm, an auditory thunder like a lion’s roar! But both quickly realized that it wasn’t just Micelangelo’s voice that had done it as an aftershock hit the mech hard and caught both alien and mutant off guard.

~~~

It was harder to reach Raphael than Leonardo had been anticipating. He entered the mind meld state just as easily as he had in the forest to find Donatello, but finding someone was so much different than actually reaching them. Leonardo could send out as many thoughts as he wanted, but which ones could reach Raphael wasn’t something he could control, especially at such a distance. It was only getting farther and farther away as Raphael raced off to find his friend. The way Cassandra had been tossed, the sound made when Krang’s claws met her flesh. The blood, the scream. He didn't even think a mutant could survive that, let along a human, but he still had to find just in case she was—

Raph!

Raphael stopped, his feet skidding across the asphalt as he looked around. The city was evacuated hours ago, and even if it hadn’t been, he couldn’t think of anyone who would be this far away from the fight that would know him. Was his mind tricking him, or was that strange, turtle-shaped flicker of blue light staring at him?

Raph! The voice said again.

Leonardo! That was Leonardo’s voice! Raphael raced to the blue light he saw and stopped short, the projection transparent and glistening but most assuredly a visage of his brother.

“Wha— Leo? How are you doing that?!”

“There’s no time to explain, I don’t know how long I can hold this!” Leonardo’s image was flickering like a camera glitch, blipping in and out of existence at random, “You need to get to the back of the mech! We think we found a way to shut it down but we need you to—“

Leonardo’s voice and transparent body disappeared. Astral projection. So that was Leonardo’s new power!

“What? Need me to what?” Raphael searched the empty road for anything to complete Leonardo’s urgent request, but there was nothing. If he was going to Raphael for help, then that meant it could only be one thing. “Smash? You need me to smash you out!”

Raphael didn't have his smash jitsu anymore, but he could still try! Maybe being so close to Leonardo would help his little brother to be able to reach him again! Not a thought against his plan came to Raphael’s mind, and he was already on the way back to his brothers’ aid when he remembered why he had been all the way out here to begin with. Cassandra! She was still out there somewhere and he had to find her! He started to go back to his search, then winced and hesitated when he again remembered the desperation in Leonardo’s voice.

He had to choose between his brothers and his best friend and he had minutes, if that, to make the choice. Cassandra or his family, Cassandra or his brothers, his friends his families his—

Was that a truck?! It was! A semi-truck was barreling down toward him blaring a horn louder than any alarm Raphael had ever heard in the lair. Fear and shock froze him to the spot like a deer in headlights as the truck kept coming, and in the driver's seat was a young girl who couldn’t be more older her early twenties, hair pulled back by a bandana and an expression that told of pure, mischievous glee.

“Cass?!” Raphael gawked, and then screamed and raised his hands to cover his face when he realized the impact was imminent. Cassandra had the brakes on just in time, the back of the semi-truck practically lifting up off the road as the tip of its hood just barely brushed against Raphael’s plastron.

Cassandra leaned out of the window, “Get in, big guy! Haven’t got all day!”

“CJ!” Raphael scrambled to climb into the passenger seat, immediately grabbing Cassandra from the drivers seat and turning her around looking for the injuries that he knew he had seen! Cassandra’s clothes were in ruin, the cloth stained crimson, but no matter how Raphael searched he couldn’t find a single injury! “How…?”

“Don’t question a good thing Raphie!” Cassandra said, pushing against Raphael’s plastron to get him to let her go. “Buckle up. We’re going for a ride.”

Raphael strapped himself in. “I didn't know you had a truck driving license!”

“I DON’T!”

With that, Cassabdra sped away down the road.

[toku-explained]

The Swordsman of All

SSSS.Dynazenon: Sizumu finds some kids looking at what he dubs a failed Kaiju, Zaiohn it goes away, later spraying paint on a sleeping Gauma. Yomogi and Yume go to Futaba's workplace, but he quit a while ago. Koyomi recalls Inamoto showing him a stash of money she found and suggesting they run off together, he ran away. Recalling his recent dealings with her, he goes to throw a rock at a window when everyone is called by Gauma, wanting the paint spreading Zaiohn found. Yomogi and Yume find it easily, it's quite sad cute, and convince Gauma not to kill it since it's not being used by the Eugenecists, he tries using Instance Domination on it unsuccessfully, the others try as a joke, and Yomogi sees a weird vision. They're spotted by the GridKnight Alliance. Sizumu takes the Eugenecists out. Anosillus and Knight explain Kaiju have sources, which must have been spread around based on their appearance locations, which are fed by human hearts, both silent when Gauma asks how they know so much when they aren't Kaiju, warning to keep an eye on Zaiohn. Mujina excels at bowling, Onija at tennis, Juuga just worries about relaxing instead of finding Kaiju. Gauma looks at the Kaiju while wondering where his princess is. Gauma fell asleep and Zaiohn escaped, Sizumu suggests a movie, Tarabaman, Onija and Mujina are weirdly of one mind about things now. Knight meets Yomogi and helps him look, as Zaiohn, now bigger, keeps going, they talk about if its possible it has a human heart. Knight acknowledges some Kaiju have human hearts, but others will deceive, and hesitating to kill one that then causes real damage isn't okay, if it's a threat, he will kill it. Koyomi and Gauma leap into action to try and lure Zaiohn from the city, panicking crowds separate Yume from Chise. Knight tells Yomogi that at the size it is, Zaiohn needs to stopped, they go into battle. Reacting to GridKnight, DynaSoldier converts into the Dynamic Cannon, which he wields. Yomogi is unsure on killing Zaiohn. When it starts damaging the building, and learning Yume is inside without DynaWing, he tries Instance Domination, having the same reaction and it looks right at him, Yomogi forces himself to use Dynamic Fire. Afterwards Yomogi is unsure of himself. The seed Chise found now resembles a kaiju frame. Sizumu is the only one of the Eugenecists who was even aware of the battle. Yume asks Yomogi to grab food together.

Heroes' Odyssey: Zero talks about the traitor to the Land of Light, Ultraman Belial, and his own battle with Kaiser Belial and Arch Belial, before talking about Tiga battling Geozark, leading to Masaki Keigo stealing the Sparklence and the fragments of the other statues, using it to revive another Ancient Giant of Light as Evil Tiga. Guardie attempts and fails to get through to the heart of the original giant, his friend, and is killed, before Tiga arrives and manages to stop him.

Saber: Yuri explains that Luna singling out Touma marks him as the one who will inherit Wonder Worlds power. Kento believes Touma might be able to change fate, but Kurayami is still showing him the World's destruction, Tassel's bird flies by. Master Logos shows Storious his new book, explaining if it absorbs the other books a new Seiken will be born, allowing him to fulfill his ambitions. Sophia explains her attempt to replace Kuna and disrupt the ritual, apologising for not revealing she's an artificial human, but everyone accepts her. Mei notes Wonder Story is partly blank. Touma needs to save Luna and receive power. Ryoga explains to Reika that the Shindai clan have a duty to protect Master Logos, and if they deem him unworthy of that title, there is only one thing to do. With the golden Calabdolg in hand, Master Logos uses the Omni Force Wonder Ride Book to bring darkness, the Northern Swordsmen rush to face him, he mocks his predecessors for not seizing the infinite power, and humanity, rejecting his duty when Yuri mentions it. Master Logos uses Omni Force to become Kamen Rider Solomon, the Swordsmen use their strongest forms against him. He overpowers them, then create seven books in the air in major cities worldwide. An image appears from each work, Izaak introduces himself, declaring he will rule humanity, he tells the survivor of war amongst humanity will be saved. Ryoga now knows what he and Reika must do, Bacht ponders things. The prophecy about Rekka tells how Touma can receive the power to face this, but all the Swordsmen must be aligned. Ogami and Daishinji seeks Ren, Yuri Kento. Ren reflects on recent events and his Masters advice to always seek strength, hiding with Desast when they come looking, Desast points out he actually does want to fight with them. The Shibdais confront Izaak, who rejects the name Master Logos, and prepare to remove him, all three changemand fight. Rekka reacts, and Touma can tell Durandal and Sabela are fighting Solomon. Kento tells Yuri the book will destroy everything, Yuri can tell he plans to engulf everything, himself included, in shadow. Solomon is able to counter the siblings' techniques, mocking them for continuing their familial duties, when Saber and Blades arrive. Durandal has a moment of stubbornness but is convinced by Touma to fight with them. Yuri knows, as Kento does from his visions, that if Touma receives Wonder World's power he'll become it's Guardian and have to remain there, Kento finds this unacceptable, but Yuri thinks even this can be changed now, he should believe in Touma, then goes to get the others to safety. As Kento wants to join Touma but thinks it's too late, Sophia appears to him.

Zenkaiger: Boccowaus is getting frustrated, Barashitara intends to deal with things before Ijirude finishes his work. Zyuran and Magine run into some kids, but they're only fans of Twokaiser, Zyuran is frustrated by the Goldtsuikar's and the others acceptance of them. Katatsumurui World appears, slowing everything else in an area to a snail's pace. Twokaiser arrives, but is also slowed on entering the area. The others arrive, but Flint from CrocoDaiOh warns them off entering the slow area. At Colourful Flint explains the powers, trying to help them make a plan, insisting it's just to save her brother. Zox is keeping his spirits up, while Magine and Zyuran listen. Barashitara orders Katatsumuri World to eliminate the ones he has captive, but when he attacks it emerges Zox had used the waiting time to prepare attacks in advance. Ijirude is finishing his work, but Stacey wants it now. The others arrive, using Turboranger to speed up the others to normal speed, they get Katatsumuri World, then empower others in the area. While they all change and announce themselves, Twokaiser refuses to be included in the team. When Katatsumuri World tries to slow them again, Zenkaiser and Twokaiser both use Turboranger to counter (Blue Turbo for Zox), and swiftly finish things. Dai Katatsumuri World arrives, ZenkaiOh ZyuraGaon battles first, but the tough shell makes things hard. Ijirude finishes his work and sends out Stacey, who arrives in his Battle Caesar Robo toattack ZenkaiOh. The twins decide to try Flint's new modification to CrocoDaiOh, and so using Katana's Kikai side, Twokaiser brings out Twokai-Oh Katana. Stacaesar uses the new arrival to focus on ZenkaiOh exclusively, Rekka Daizan finishes Dai Katatsumuri World, and Stacaesar leaves so Twokai-Oh doesn't interfere. Zyuran and Magine are frustrated by Zox still.

Saber X Ghost: 3 followers of Danton have captured Kanon, and are using her to try and find Makoto, or "Leon" as they call him. Kanon wonders about in a trance looking for him, spotted by Desast, who smells that she isn't human and grabs her, spotted by Youma and Mei. Saber fights Desast but Kaanon is still in a trance, throwing Desast away after e beats Touma. At Daitenkuu Takeru has the book Ghost Ijinroku, Javel brings Condor Phone over, whoever is on the other end tells him Kanon is missing and he runs off. They briefly run into eachother, each momentarily distracted by the other's main item. Takers encounters the 3 followers, who aim recreate Danton's Ultimate Lifeform. Definitely some novel continuity here, as Takeru specifically refuses to allow them to harm Chloë with their plan. One turns into a Ganma Superior to hold him off. Javel runs into Touma and Mei, both groups essentially looking for the same thing, Kanon and Desast both quickly arrive. Kanon flips out and beats off Desast and runs after Touma becomes Saber, Desast and Saber chasing, Javel aims to help with his own abilities, but he doesn't have them anymore. The fight continues between Saber and Desast over Kanon when Javel and Mei arrive, Javel fails to appeal to Desast's better nature, and Takeru and the Ganma arrive as Kanon wails on Saber, then brutalised Touma only to snap out when he promises to help find her brother. Takeru and Touma properly make introductions, and become Saber and Ghost to fight Desast and the Ganma, who make a quick deal for Kanon. Facing Desast, Ghost uses Musashi, while Saber unable to do anything, until Takeru lends him Ghost Ijinroju, kept at Daitenkuu for generations. The form represents Ghost and the 15 Heroic Spirits, and Ghost switches to Grateful, the two together finish the Ganma, and Desast runs off. After some talk Takeru promises to help find Makoto, and Javel takes Kanon to the temple, but on the way back they're ambushed by the remaining followers, who drag Kanon away.

Dogengers Nice Buddy: Great Z tells Riku he's determined to bring about his justice. Yabai Kamen prepares to run away, but is caught by Shaberryman right before Riku gets home. Riku is given pause by Yabai Kamen's words, reminded of something Yamashiron said to Great Z, then sweet talks Yabai Kamen into staying with them, before getting an alert they need Nectaris and Uzagi. Filming has a giant Uzagi via camera trickery, before Great Z arrives to fight Nectaris and the Karamis. Watching on TV, most of the Dogengers rollout, leaving Fukuokaliber with a despondent Yamashiron. After a couple of attacks from Nectaris, Great Z begins a heroic speech when he has another attack, seeing images of teasing from eyeless children, and the child being teased's anger. Fishing out a pill, he angrily recalls his experiences with the Dogengers thus far, takes his medicine and brutally attacks Nectaris, everyone watching turning from amused to concerned. Getting ahold of himself, he pulls Nectaris up, and summons Great Daizenshin for a finish, Uzagi jumps to Nectaris when filming is disrupted by police cars escorting the remains of the Kitaqmachine and El Brave, Kitaqman, Ohgaman, Rookie and Kitaqman Metal arrive. After indulging Ohgaman's cop drama bit, they try to survive Great Daizenshin's onslaught, Yamashiron is scared watching but Fukuokaliber has him wait and eat, a meal specifically involving Bell Peppers, which Yamashiron digs into. He's reminded of how the 3 of him learnt to cook together, and now feels ready to fight again. The building that makes their base shakes, and emerges from the ground in front of the others, atop a giant yellow robo.

[farmerlan]

Farmer Lan’s Rewatch Guide to The Untamed - Episode 1

HERE WE GO I am strapped in with my Topo Chico and ready to take on Episode 1 of The Untamed. It’s going to be wild. I have no idea what I’m doing. If you’re reading this and have a better suggestion on how I should format everything, feel free to tell me because right now this is just the diary of a madwoman.

CAUTION: Due to the chronological differences between the novel and the drama, there will be instances where I bring in references further along in the novel and/or drama to explain what is going on, so there will be spoilers if you haven’t finished the series.

[Starting scene – there’s a voiceover of people rejoicing over WWX’s death, we see a chaotic battlefield and people fighting over the Stygian Tiger Amulet (here forth abbreviated as the STA because abbreviations are my jam). WWX commits suicide by falling off a cliff, LWJ tries to stop him and then JC sends him to the depths of hell. Flash to the present when some storyteller is narrating this story, and we’re told 16 years has passed since the Nightless City incident and WWX is seemingly gone forever – although his body has never been recovered despite extensive search efforts.]

Differences from the novel:

In the novel, there is no mention of clans trying to fight over the STA during the bloodbath at Nightless City. It’s definitely true that the existence of the STA and WWX’s unchecked power led to the actions of the Nightless City, but it was a combination of multiple events that led up to the battle, and not an explicit cause and effect.

It is also explicitly stated during Chapter 1 as people recount the tale of WWX that he destroyed the STA prior to his death.

In the novel, it is stated in Chapter 1 and confirmed by WWX himself (in Chapter 43) that WWX’s death was caused by his own power rebounding upon him and he ended up being torn apart by his own undead creations. So unfortunately the epic cliff scene was entirely scripted for the drama.

13 years has passed in the novel vs. 16 years in the drama. I can’t remember if there was an exact reason why they switched up the timeline, but just know that the timeline of the novel series of events itself is also very confusing and I will probably do a post with my take on it sometime later.

[Cut to present – WWX is summoned by MXY’s sacrifice, there’s some weird mask action going on, WWX creates a ruckus at the arrival of the Gusu disciples, they set up shop with the Demon Summoning flags, tell WWX to go wait inside and then they wait for the spirits to come their way.]

Differences from the novel:

The mask does not exist in the novel. In the novel, the body that WWX is summoned into is that of MXY’s, and MXY is a different person in every way from WWX in terms of face, height, etc. So everyone who sees WWX thinks he is MXY up until he finally reveals himself. It’s obviously a stylistic choice made to reflect why no one can recognize WWX in the drama series even though they are played by the same actor, because otherwise I can see how it can get confusing for viewers.

WWX is shown to be playing the WangXian melody in the room but this does not happen in the novel, although it does lead to a pretty epic snark from my favorite boy LJY about how awful WWX’s playing is (which IS in the novel, but happens later in the story instead). WWX does NOT use a flute at all until the Da Fan Shan arc in the novel. Also Jingyi, never stop being you.

It is not explicitly mentioned that MXY went to Lan Ling Jin sect in the novel at this current point, only that he was accepted as a disciple by a sect before being kicked out. We find this out later.

Other than that, the scenes with MXY closely follows the novel up until the Demonic Left Arm (DLA) to show up.

[WWX is hauled in to confess his crimes by Matriarch Mo, things go to shit in about 3 seconds and the disciples realize they need to call for backup STAT, the flare for LWJ is sent. WWX realizes this needs to end fast in order to avoid meeting LWJ and exposing himself. A-Tong becomes possessed by the DLA, dies, and then the DLA possesses Matriarch Mo. Attempts to restrain her fail and WWX revives the other now-undead Mos to fight her.]

Differences from the novel:

The sassy verbal takedown of Matriarch Mo by WWX is indeed in the novel and just as great.

The drama identifies the black marks on the victims’ necks as being caused by the STA. There is no such scene in the novel. Basically, there is no mention of the STA being the cause of ANY of this, because in the novel, it’s not.

In the novel, the disciples send flares for back up but are uncertain how quickly back up will arrive, and they definitely did not specifically call for LWJ. However, WWX realizes he needs to intervene to end this quickly because the spirit is too powerful for the disciples to deal with, and he can’t leave the Mo household until the revenge curse put upon him by MXY is lifted (i.e. until everyone MXY wants dead is dead).

A funny scene that gets left out of the drama is: Matriarch Mo leaps to attack LSZ, who can’t dodge in time. Instead, WWX literally KICKS LJY into her path because he knows that the Gusu robes are imbued with magical protective spells, so he basically used LJY as a human talisman as a last resort. LJY did not find this funny, and WWX plays the “I didn’t do anything, I have no idea what I just did and I can’t be held culpable because I’m batshit crazy” card. Ah, my boys.

 [LWJ appears just as Matriarch Mo appears to have gotten the upper hand, and subdues her with the POWER OF MUSIC dundun (also sensually massaging the guqin strings helloooo). WWX is hiding but HE IS HERE for all of his boo’s actions. LWJ clarifies that the DLA is a spiritual sword ghost with traces of the STA, everyone gasps because didn’t WWX die? OR DID HE NOT? Time will tell, my friends. Anyway, with the DLA subdued for now, LWJ hears the footsteps of WWX running away and chases after him but sees nobody. He thinks….”WEIYING IS IT REALLY YOU??” WWX A MYSERIOUS PERSON (to be revealed...but OK it’s NHS I told you there would be spoilers) gives money to the storyteller, and then we see WWX with Little Apple and he has one more wound left on his arm, indicating there’s someone else he needs to kill on behalf of MXY.]

Differences from the novel:

In the novel, WWX leaves the moment he hears LWJ’s guqin and does not stay to spectate.

See above re: no mention of what caused this, and certainly no discussion of the STA.

There’s no mention of LWJ suspecting that it is WWX in MXY’s body, or even suspecting that he has returned at all.

In the novel, the four wounds left as a physical reminder of the body count for the revenge curse is for the three members of the Mo family and for A-Tong. Therefore, WWX leaves the Mo family effectively free of his debt to MXY, but in the drama, he is shown to still have one remaining person left to kill…dun dun dun.

Storyteller man is not around in the novel – consider him a convenient voiceover tool for the drama ha. Thanks to the @redisthecolouroffate​ for the catch, I missed this but this is also the episode where NHS first shows up to reward the man for his storytelling, which is a nice bit of foreshadowing done by the show which is not in the novel at all.

Overall Thoughts

The drama does a really good job of setting the tone from the beginning. There’s not too much deviation here compared to the first five chapters of the novel (which covers this whole Ep 1 arc) since the majority of it was to set up the premise for the show and introduce our main characters.

The main difference here is we can see the drama is already setting itself up for the STA to play a much bigger role than in the novel. In the novel, our protagonists really have no idea what is behind the DLA at this point, and they certainly don’t immediately assert that it is a ‘sword ghost’ that has been tainted by the STA. In the novel, the only explanation for the DLA at present is in Chapter 5, when WWX notes that the spirit is more powerful than most, given that this spirit has already claimed three lives in the span of a few hours. WWX also deduced that this was the arm of a person who died by dismemberment, and to summarize the novel, the ghost arm is effectively trying to find the rest of its body. Until then, it moves between ‘live hosts’ like a parasite.

Also – WWX is also noted to be wearing badly applied make up in the novel but not in the drama. It is clarified in Chapter 1 that MXY was homosexual and was kicked out of his cultivation sect as he harassed a fellow male disciple and is now basically a gay lunatic, which is unfortunately not a great look in ye olden days.

Lastly, cute tidbit in the novel in Chapter 3 that didn’t make its way into the drama – WWX secretly marveled at LSZ’s knowledge and manners, and wondered “Who in that godforsaken, old-fashioned place (referring to the Cloud Recesses) could have brought him up/taught him so well?” OH YOU’LL FIND OUT WHO HA.

[gongju-juice]

5. Once Upon a Southern Night

Crescent City

Warnings: Mentions of slavery and Confederacy

New Orleans. Hot and humid as home. Sister city to Mobile. Walking down the steamy streets, it smelled like spicy seasoning and margaritas—sounded like jazz beats and rushing crowds. 

This year, Ash Wednesday fell incredibly late; March 10 to be exact. You never thought you would find yourself stumbling through New Orleans in the middle of Fat Tuesday—half-naked dancers screaming at your boyfriend from parade floats and indiscreet tourists flashing themselves as your family walked by. It was the most humiliating experience you ever felt, and all you could do is curse the Lost Cause soldiers who started the damn holiday in your home city in the first place.

The hospital was located smack in the middle of the old French Quarter where colonial buildings towered above the people, decorated in royal colored beads and winding lights. Nobody could drive the car through the crowd, so you had to get there by walking. You held your mom’s hand with your left, Jasper’s hand with your right.

“It’s never like this at home,” you explained to Jasper with a nervous laugh. “Did you know that the New Orleans mayor has to get permission from Mobile’s mayor every year to practice Mardi Gras?”

He looked down at you with his burning eyes. Since becoming aware of your family’s secret, he’d hardened himself to this emotionless being whose only concern was your safety. You were not allowed to leave his side, and when you had to go to the bathroom, he stood right outside the door like some long lost puppy.

“Something tells me they wouldn’t care whether or not they got permission anyway,” Emmett cackled. “New Orleans is wild.”

“Yeah, and you keep your eyes on the ground, sir,” Rosalie said, punching the side of his arm. The reverberating echo sounded like cracking glass.

The hospital was in very good shape on the outside despite being closed indefinitely for the past seventeen years. According to your mom, immediately after you were born, the place had been completely shut down and abandoned. 

There were pictures of all kinds of historic events hung in antique gold frames on the walls: naval ships on fire at the Battle of Galveston, slaves picking fresh cotton on a South Carolinian plantation, Jefferson Davis’s inauguration in Montgomery, Alabama.

And in the middle of the lobby were a series of three grand portraits of Texas Majors. And at the end: Jasper Whitlock, Houston native, (1845-1863), died during a surprise Union attack in an evacuation order. There he was in his fine uniform, a cowboy hat over his honey curls. He looked so recognizable. . .so familiar in those white gloves—

He touched your side, and you looked around. The others were gone from sight, but you knew they could still hear everything where you were. 

“If I could go back in time, if I could start all over again, I would do so in a heartbeat. I’m not proud of my past, Y/N. Not when I was human, nor when I changed. And I. . .I know I have no right to ask for your forgiveness but I—”

There was venom glistening in his eyes. Vampires couldn’t cry. It was one of the things Rosalie said she missed most about being a human. But looking at Jasper now, he looked like he was on the very verge of doing the possible. He fell to his knees.

“I’m so sorry for it all. I’m so sorry for what I did. I never. . .I never did some of the things my comrades did, but that doesn’t make me any less guilty. I still killed people. I killed people for the wrong reason, Y/N. I was a monster, and I can never wipe that blood off my ledger.”

You cradled his face in your hands. “We all have our past, Jas. You might’ve made mistakes, you might’ve done bad things, but you’re not the same person you used to be. It was a different time and era, and frankly, you growing from what you’ve suffered and experienced makes me love you even more.”

“But I was evil. There was evil in my heart, and I thought I was doing right. I convinced myself I was fighting for my neighbors—for my way of life. But the truth is, that way of life was wrong. Whether it was enslaving African Americans or newborns, I still felt all of their pain. It was so much, so much death and heartache,” he insisted, holding on to your wrists like they were the only thing they could hold him upright. “And I’m not worthy to be your man.”

“You damn right, you aren’t,” a feminine voice snapped behind you.

You turned around to face a black woman, just about her early twenties, menacing at Jasper by your side. She had a thick, kinky head of natural textured hair, and she was very well built—like she could run a marathon and beat everyone in the race. And her eyes were a mesmerizing shade of hazel that stood out against her skin.

“Who—who are you?” you asked, your voice trembling and barely above a whisper. The Cullens appeared from the shadows, surprised and slightly on edge that someone was in the hospital that they did not know about.

“My name used to be Ava Lafayette,” she explained, glancing you up down like you were nothing more than a roach. “We used to be—we are sisters.”

“How do I? I feel like we’ve met before.” Jasper touched his head, his fingernails digging into his skin like he was in severe pain. You hugged his waist, trying to comfort him but there wasn’t much you could do for the ailment of a vampire. Carlisle held him upright with his steady hands.

“That’s because we have, Major. You had a mission to gather all male, able-bodied volunteers from Mobile when you stumbled across the Lafayette plantation. I was a house slave of that household, of Preston Lafayette Sr.’s household. And he is also my father.”

You reeled back in horror. “So. . .does that mean? Preston Lafayette II is my brother???!”

She shook her head. “Nope, not this time. He’s my brother. Your father’s name was James. He was a full-blooded slave who lived on a neighboring plantation about thirty miles north.”

“But how is this possible?” your mother demanded, holding your arm. “She was born right here seventeen years ago. My husband and I adopted her. She was a baby!”

Ava glared at her, her eyes brightening inhumanely blue. “How are you skeletons still standing and breathing? It’s the work of the witches. The rule of supernatural order. Except in this case, Y/N is an exception.”

“. . .What?”

Ava suddenly waved her hand, and the air around you transformed into a place that was not the hospital. You were in the middle of a hot, blazing field, there were little black children running around carrying cracked buckets of water. Horses whinnied at the swarming flies, and poorly abused men and women sang in the fields.

“Massah completely forgot about Mama after I was born. About six years later when she had enough cloth to make her own wedding dress, she and James jumped the broom. You were born a couple of months later, right around the time Preston Jr. himself was born.

The two of you were inseparable. You played in the fields together when you weren’t in the Big House secretly learning lessons with Missus. He taught you how to ride his horse, Midnight, and you showed him how to gather berries by the river where the girls washed the laundry.

The two of you fell in love, and although you’d gotten much too old to be running around, Preston loved you to pieces. He begged Massah to let you in the house with all the fair-skinned servants. So, Massah took it one step further. He gave you to him for his nineteenth birthday.

The night of the party, however, Major Whitlock and some of his men came riding up to the front steps. They invited him in for dinner, and Preston had no choice but to join since his father was much too old to serve and he had no other male siblings. 

He had to leave you behind, but not before finding out you were expecting’. It wasn’t uncommon for those kinds of things to happen back then, but it was still big news. Preston was devastated. He never believed in slavery anyhow, but he was afraid Missus would sell you if she knew about the baby. He was supposed to be getting married to Miss Abigail Mae Shepherd, and it would not be good news to hear about a half-negro baby in the plantation.

Unfortunately, Preston was right. While he was gone, Mama was furious. Missus had made arrangements for you to be sold up to a whore house in Charleston the next week. But see the thing about Mama—she was no ordinary slave. She was a witch who’d given up her magic in order to be with a human, James. 

She sought help from her friends, but they would not help her. So, with no other choice, she decided to cast the forbidden spell.

She ignored the laws of time, erased your memories, and de-aged you in order to send you to the year (----), when you were ‘born.’ This hospital was never real, just an illusion that came with the spell. She intended for some human to adopt you so you could grow up as a normal child in the 21st century, but instead you were adopted by a white vampire.”

The illusion melted away, and once again you were in the dusty hospital.

“You don’t know the pain and suffering I went through while you were enjoying the amenities of the future. Mama, after breaking the most sacred forbidden spell of the witches, was sentenced to death by all of the North American clans. They allowed Missus to have her hanged, and then she turned her rage onto me.

I eventually ran to New Orleans to escape the Lafayettes and find the truth of our supernatural background. There, the witches accepted me, albeit begrudgingly, and taught me how to use my power. I knew I’d eventually find you, one year or another, but I didn’t expect it would take nearly two centuries to do so.”

Your heart was broken. Your whole life—as tragic as it was—was built with that man who was chasing after you now. He was the father to your unborn child, the child that would never be born. You’d grown up together, known each other inside and out. But you’d completely forgotten him and now he was coming back—and for what reason?

“So. . .witches. . .are they immortal?” Carlisle asked.

“Precisely—if they choose to enable their powers and stay that way. Only a witch can kill a witch. We witches created the first vampires in the world as a part of our Goddess’s order. The werewolves and shapeshifters and La Push were created some time before that as well.”

“But why is Preston trying to come for Y/N? I thought you said he was against slavery? If he really loves her, why didn’t he just tell her the whole truth in the first place?” Your mom demanded.

Ava's eyes turned back hazel, and a chair appeared behind her. “Because he wants to completely ruin Jasper. He blames Jasper for making him leave, and he blames Jasper for all the wars he fought with Maria in the South. And the little devil has allied herself with his cause, for no one wants to see him suffer more than she does.”

You felt Jasper tense beside you. None of this was his fault, he was just doing what he was ordered. But Preston was focusing all his energy on completely destroying your bond with him. Earlier, Jasper explained that you were his mate. Perhaps, this was a revenge plot?

“But why would he think I’d willingly fall into his arms like we’re still in love? It was over a century ago, and I don’t remember any of it!” you shouted.

“That man died in 1863 when he was turned. Since that day, he’s been stuck in the past—eternally bound to the promise to return back to you. No matter what you say, he’s always going to after you. That’s what he told his mother, and the next day she signed your papers.”

Jasper wrapped a protective arm around your middle. “That won’t happen. He won’t take her away from me. And as for Maria, I know her better than anyone else in this world. I’m not scared if it comes to a fight.”

“Why can’t I see anything anymore?” Alice cried. “And why can’t the witches help?”

“Because once a witch is aware of what they are, vampires can no longer turn them or use their gifts on them. Maria and Preston have also probably enlisted the help of witches or wolves to cover their tracks. And as for the witches. . .they have completely shunned Y/N from society. In fact, they’d probably be more willing to kill her than help, but because of me, they’re holding their preference of the law at bay.”

Edward, frustrated at the lack of his telepathic abilities, said, “So we’re going in blind, the witches won’t help—isn’t this a Volturi level threat?”

Ava sighed. “The Volturi is completely submissive to the witches. If they come near a witch family or steps within a mile radius of even the city of New Orleans, the entire vampire race will be completely wiped out. Sorry, but they won’t be much help in this fight.”

You pressed your hand to your chest, finding it suddenly hard to breathe. Immediately, Jasper caught you as you wobbled on your feet from the lack of oxygen. His scent comforted you, but you felt the distance between the two of you more than ever. At one point, you were pledged to another man; the same man after his life now.

“So what can we do?” your mother and Esme pleaded. “How can we save her? They’re bringing their newborn armies after us, the seven of us won’t be enough!”

Ava twirled a ball of light in her fingers thoughtfully. You realized that despite the fact she was biracial, she looked so similar to you. You shared the same round nose and shape of lips. 

“I really hate you more than anything, if I’m being honest. Your mom favored you and sent you away, leaving me in the dust and without a mother in a time when I didn’t understand a bit of what magic was or that the supernatural even existed,” she admitted. “But you’re still my sister, and you’re the only family I’ve got left. I’m going to try to get some of my friends to come to our side, but that’s no guarantee. Sadly, Helen of Troy is still pinned for being the start of war.”

“And we have some friends of our own,” Carlisle said. “And we’ll try to convince the shapeshifters to help too. If we could lure them back to La Push, that would mean infringing on werewolf territory and it would give them no choice but to defend Y/N.”

Jasper held you tighter, and his eyes darkened. “I don’t care what I have to do. Preston has been sorely mistaken, and now we have an old score to settle. Y/N and I are in love now, and we always will be. What happened in 1863 will stay in 1863, and I will be the one to make sure that happens.”

You snuggled into his chest, closing your eyes. You prayed to God—the Goddess or whoever—that you and your family would end up okay. You prayed for the baby that was never born, the baby that was never loved, and you prayed for your biological mother’s tortured soul. But lastly, and more importantly, you prayed for Jasper.

Don’t you like watching Jasper ride his hOnSe??

Part Three   Part Four

[another-kakashi-blog]

Reclamation

Title: Reclamation

Rating:M

Pairing: Kakairu

WC: 10k+

Summary:

Survivor’s guilt was an inevitable part of being a shinobi, they’d been taught this early on. 

They just hadn’t been taught how to deal with it, and as Kakashi got older, he was starting to realize that was because no one knew how.

Every day was a lesson in living.

Notes:

After many, many years of reading Kakashi fanfics, I’ve decided to finally give in and have a try at it myself. It was a lot of fun and a great challenge to write this. I am very excited to continue writing kakairu, kakagai, and kakayama in the future (for those of you who know me as that BNHA writer ( @fucking-zawa-sensei) don’t worry I’ll still write EM).

As with most of my fics, this is very sad, but I promise there will be happiness by the end. Hang in there. 

Below is a portion of fic, read all of it on AO3 here

Reclamation

To anyone else, they might call this silence.  

For Kakashi, the rustling of the tree leaves, the rush of wind passing by his face, the constant, endless pounding of his pulse, mimics the sound of waves crashing into breaker rocks. It’s akin to the crackle of thunder as the lightning leaves the ground, returning back to the clouds. 

It’s missions like these that make him feel alive. 

More than that, it’s missions like these that make him feel untethered, haunting, as if he’s floating above his own body, desperately out of control of his own limbs, watching them move without him, soaring from tree branch to tree branch with all his muscles pulling him back to Konoha. 

It’s missions like these that make him feel like there’s nothing holding him down, nothing keeping him here, like one wrong step would send him catapulting into the night sky’s embrace, leaving no remains for hunter nins to burn.

He’d leave no secrets behind. 

These nights bring a heavy burden, bring reminders that life is nothing but a body, too easily taken by another hand, that each breath, each moment is so easily wasted. 

Missions like these make him feel invincible, untouchable. 

Missions like these make him feel terrified.

Petrified. 

Horrified. 

Barely human. 

He’d lie down on a hundred kunai for Konoha, had certainly already taken that many at various times throughout his long life as a shinobi, but lately he was starting to feel like there had to be something else. 

Konoha wasn’t enough to bring him home on nights like this. 

The air he sucks into his lungs feels sharp, stinging with the late night chill that has already settled over his worn muscles. 

Each footfall, the bounce back of the wood beneath his sandals, manages to ground him only slightly. 

Half his mind is focused on the gates he knows he is closing in on, once a beacon, large doors that signified a job well done, a mission complete, but anymore felt like a hiatus, a small pause in a journey elsewhere. 

The other half is still lingering behind him, running through every move, every kill. His sharingan, as usual, had recorded it all, adding to an endless loop of jutsu and gore and blood. 

He tried, here and there, to supplement it with other things. 

Occasionally lifting his headband to take in the sight of the river flowing through Konoha, as he leaned against the side of the bridge, watching as dragonflies landed on the small rocks, little droplets of water falling off their feet as they rose up again, taking flight.

Even this had backfired on more than one occasion, though. 

Happy memories had soured. 

Fallen friends’ smiling faces now passed quickly in his mind’s eye, some more violently than others, replaced with their last moments, gasped out final requests, promises, and pleas for a life already lost. 

Every jounin carried a bingo book, a burden that only seemed to increase in weight with each new entry, and sometimes, even more so when the pages were torn out.

It meant different things for different shinobi, a list of people to avoid, flea on sight, or a list of targets, people to hunt down. Some ninja seemed to use it as a leaderboard, wanting to add page after page to their own entries, while challenging themselves to take down their competition. 

For Kakashi, it was a list of people coming for him, chasing him, always right behind him every hour of every day. It was a reason not to trust a single face he saw on his travels, a reason not to let anyone close. 

Everyone he knew was at risk, all fodder for a fire that sometimes felt far out of his control.

The book had never felt heavier than it did the day it had been slid across the godaime’s desk, his former pupil’s name now prominently featured. 

Team 7 had been one of the few things that disrupted the replay of death after death, but now, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, their laughter, their pranks, their teasing, all melted away. Replaced with a Konoha headband, deep cut through the middle. Replaced with a small, broken, bloodied blond body limp in his arms as he carried it home. Replaced with a set of green eyes glazed over with tears, and then a fierce determination that Kakashi knew too well. 

He’d been there.

He’d chased those ghosts. 

He’d trained himself raw like they all were now. He’d worked himself to exhaustion, until sleep was something he fell into in more ways than one, just to get the memories to quiet for a moment. 

Except the sharingan didn’t allow that, never had, never will. 

So each step closer to the village is one more fight left behind. 

On nights like these, he feels a trail manifesting leap by leap, miles and miles of bone and muscle and blood and voices all grabbing at his ankles as he does the one thing he’d never been able to train out of him:

Run. 

The bingo book was a burden, but Kakashi sometimes felt like he had something far heftier stored beneath his skin, a catalogue of lives stolen and lost and never returned. 

Survivor’s guilt was an inevitable part of being a shinobi, they’d been taught this early on. 

They just hadn’t been taught how to deal with it, and as Kakashi got older, he was starting to realize that was because no one knew how.

Every day was a lesson in living.

In the distance, something rustles, but Kakashi’s instincts are running at full throttle and even over the post-battle haze of unwanted memories and recordings resurfaced by his childhood friend’s gift, Kakashi can easily attribute that particular kind of twig snapping to a small animal. 

Probably a field mouse, his mind supplies. 

Sometimes, being a ninja felt an awful lot like coming up for air only to find that the surface of the water has been frozen over.

The suspicion, the paranoia, it never really faded away. Kakashi could fall back into a casual, relaxed slouch all he wanted, but there was never a moment where he wasn’t keeping tabs on any movement in his limited peripheral vision. Even more so, his ears were tuned to every sound in the village, always waiting, always expecting something out of place.

Like the unsettling stillness right before the explosive release of summoning smoke that occurred all those years ago, before the blistering sound of shrill screams and the rush of adrenaline reached Kakashi. 

The better your senses were, the warier you were, the higher chance of survival.

The village needed him. 

The sole of his shoe slips just slightly on the next branch and his pulse triples as he glances back at the wood. 

He sees blood, not much, not enough to affect his footing. 

As he hits the next branch, another shock of instability jolts through his leg. He looks down at his body, taking stock, something he really should have done after the battle was over, but he’d been too caught up in ghosts to notice anything out of place. 

He was leaving a small trail of blood behind him. His skin begins to prickle and his eyes narrow at the crimson drop plummeting down from his chest, watching it fall and vanish behind him, gone before it hits the ground, as he continues to race through the forest. 

This was a genin level mistake. 

A tail of breadcrumbs that would get you killed, every time, without fail. 

Survival was imperative. 

Dying meant Konoha lost one of its best protectors. 

More than that, dying meant failure to uphold his responsibilities. 

Naruto could tell everyone he’d bring Sasuke back over and over, and all his classmates could believe him, that’s fine, they were young. 

Kakashi saw the way any lingering jounins’ mouths turned down at the edges when they overhead these words. 

These kids didn’t have the experience Kakashi did, that the other jounin and ANBU did. Their generation hadn’t lived through war, they hadn’t seen the in-fighting among the elders and clans, they only knew the destruction second-hand, as people they never got to meet and things they never got to see, lost before their time. 

They didn’t know how powerful revenge could make a person. 

Kakashi did. 

Sasuke may still be a child himself, but there was always a fierce shadow consuming the boy.

He’d never admit it, not out loud, but after their fight on the hospital rooftop, a chilling wave of reality he’d always dreaded came crashing down over Kakashi’s shoulders that night. With the village decimated by Orochimaru’s attack, he’d hardly had time to have many thoughts beyond  complete the mission, as one after another they piled up. Exhaustion was becoming the norm, both physically and mentally. Still, the alarming chirp of the his jutsu, perhaps foolishly passed down to the surviving Uchiha boy, and the unsettling swirl of chakra just centimeters from his hand as it had wrapped around Naruto’s wrist, were a constant presence in his psyche between accepted mission scrolls. 

He’d never forget it, didn’t need the sharingan to keep the memory sealed tight in his mind. 

The first night after their fight, he’d found cover in a small crevice tucked into a cliffside after completing his mission, taking a small reprieve to regain some strength before returning back to the village, still not fully recovered from Itachi’s attack. A heavy weight settled in his stomach as he accepted the inevitable.  

One day he’d have to kill Sasuke. 

That had become all the more clear after he’d abandoned the village and forsaken Konoha. 

Some part of Kakashi still wanted to believe Naruto, still wanted to see that there was another option for Sasuke, that he hadn’t been wrong to try and steer him back toward team 7, away from Itachi, away from Orochimaru, away from the false solitude of vengeance. 

Kakashi was a realist, though. 

Those fleeting hopes were hard to hold onto.

Instead, he tried to fool himself into thinking he could have the strength to do what the sandaime failed to.

Read the rest on AO3 here

[xenoredux]

The Legend of Silver Fang - Episode 5: The Beasts

If you haven’t read episode 4 yet, you can do so here.

As mentioned before, the major story beats and overarching plot are the same. This is written under the supposition that, in fantasy land, this is a mini series with episodes that run about 2 hours in length each.

Some things to be aware of going in:

This story is violent as shit!!! CONTENT WARNING FOR: Animal injuries, animal death, sickness via poisoning, eye trauma, weaponry, cannibalism, fire damage to property and animals, wacky cult antics, child abuse and endangerment, suicide, starvation, dogfighting, bullying, and idk probably something else terrible. Seriously don’t read if you don’t like this kind fuckery

I was trying to achieve a decent adaptation that combines the strongest elements of the anime and manga. It will not be precisely like either and will occasionally totally deviate from both

This isn’t meant to be “better” then the canon. It’s just the way I’d go about rewriting the Akakabuto arc if I had that level of ungodly power lol

Character designs made to represent several mentioned characters can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Others will be left up to the reader’s interpretation. A link to the next episode will also be provided at the end. If a link isn’t available, the next episode just hasn’t been posted yet!

I KEEP POSTING THESE SO LATE IN THE DAY AAAAAHHH

The Igas and Gin are frozen where they float. Kurojaki's teeth clack against the scythe's handle as he sadistically taunts them. This day marks the end of the Iga clan he says (though it sounds more like "Ish ey marsh he and ufh eh Uhguh clun.") Akame barks back someone along the lines of "OH YEAH?" before turning to the others.

The albino levels with them: four against, what, 40? Not good odds. But maybe if there was a diversion some of them could get away. Akame passes his share of herbs to Jinnai and says that no matter what happens the Ohu soldiers must receive these herbs. Even if it costs the remaining Igas their lives and their legacy, no innocents will die just because some mottled dickhead bamboozled them all.

With a final command for them to get moving, Akame vertical leaps outta the lake and busts Koga heads the minute he lands. The other three good guys exit stage right while the gettin's still good. Gin looks back, almost certain someone's gonna come after them, but the Kogas are all too concerned with chasing Akame in circles to care about anything else.

Shinobi slaying is easier said then done, turns out. Akame didn't become Chief Ninja Daddy without some skills to back the title up. He is eventually pinned down by several heftier dogs, but it takes a few minutes of him humiliating his opponents first. As payback one of the cannibals chomps down hard on Akame's hind leg and jerks it back at a nasty angle. Akame lets out a manly scream of pain.

Jinnai, Kirikaze, and that silver guy are still running back home unimpeded when they hear Akame's hollering. Kirikaze is especially affected by his old man's tortured yowls and he begins crying big fat tears of sorrow.

So overwhelmed is he by his progenitor's wails that he tries to double back, but Jinnai tackles him and tries to smack some sense into him. Kirikaze's gotta nut up for Akame's sake. This scolding almost works, but another scream from the chief threatens to break the rest of Kirikaze's resolve.

They have reason to be concerned. Kurojaki's started wiping the forest floor with Akame's pale ass, bruising the Kishu heavily and giving him a nice big slash across the throat. The cut on his neck isn't enough to kill Akame, but combined with his other injuries it's enough to sap his remaining strength from him. As Akame tries to gather his bearings and defend himself the scythe comes down across his neck a second time.

Another scream of agony reaches the trio. Jinnai and Kirikaze are still fighting over whether to save the army of strangers or their dad when Gin decides he can't stand moral dilemas involving family. He spits out his share of herbs and shoves them towards Kirikaze.

Gin tells the bros that he's willing to double back and help Akame so long as they can pull themselves together long enough to cure the Ohu dogs. As the Akita moves towards the marsh, Jinnai asks him if he's so insolent as to disobey the chief's orders.

"Akame isn't my chief," Gin states matter of factly, "so I can do whatever I want." And so he turns and leaves the two Kishus to collect their herbs and continue their journey. Before they go the two decide to come back and help the moment they deliver the plants.

Akame coughs up blood and falls limply to the ground. He's hurting something fierce. He tries to go all Mind Over Matter with his body, but he's having too much trouble standing up to fight anymore. Kurojaki cackles triumphantly. Maya is grinning in a nasty way while their son yips excitedly, too young to understand that Daddy's committing an atrocity.

Emboldened by the support, Kurojaki decides it's time to deliver the killing blow. He leaps towards the incapacitated albino all ready to shreddy, too busy to notice the other Kogas trying to stop a silver striped blur from slamming into him. Gin lunges through the air, grabs Kurojaki by the hind leg, and does an anti-gravity version of the worm that sends both of them flying to the ground. Gin lands elegantly on all fours, but Kurojaki is slammed face first into the dirt. The moment he makes contact with Mother Earth, the cannibal lets out an unholy screech.

Everyone is taken aback - even Akame is frightened by the noise - as Kurojaki continues vicerally screaming for a moment more. It's at this moment that Gin realizes he hadn't seen where the scythe's blade had landed. Kurojaki lifts his trembling head and turns to face Gin.

The blade has been buried deep into the black devil's right eye. Icky red squidge oozes from the wound and down his cheek as he heaves a shallow, rattled breath.

"You little motherfucker," he pants, his remaining eye bulging and rolling around wildly in his head.

The other Kogas are now a terrifying mix of horrified and pissed the fuck off, and Kurojaki's ready to take advantage of that. As Gin gapes in horror at the live demonstration of why running with sharp things is a bad idea Kurojaki commands his crew to tear the invaders limb from limb. He especially wants that little stripey shit's head on a pike.

Obedient as ever, Kurojaki's mohawked mooks spring into action. Gin leaps to Akame's side to protect him. A couple of especially speedy Kogas advance on them before the others, but Gin's entire bloodstream is full of adrenaline right now and he manages to pick them off easily.

Before the rest of the hoard can descend upon them, Gin snags Akame up by the scruff and leaps into the trees with him. The Kogas watch as the two make their getaway. This only serves to frustrate Kurojaki. As Maya is fussing over his sliced up face he screams for the cult to follow the two.

Unaware of what's gone down, Jinnai and Kirikaze continue their jog home. They've been making good time but are stopped suddenly when another dog they've yet to meet jumps out of the bushes before them. He's just as surprised to see them as they are to see him, and they all trip over each other.

The dog, a tempermental German Shepherd, barks that the two dipshits need to watch where they're going next time. The Kishus apologize before scampering off with their herbs.

To the surprise of no one this rude dog is John. The upstart has finally left the village to pursue more heroic avenues. This is nice, but he realizes it's not quite going according to plan when he notices several dogs of intederminate breed running up to him.

These three dogs have the decency to stop and ask if John's seen a couple of white guys with plants in their gobs passing by. John pulls an "I know something that you don't know" face and tells them to fuck off because he's not going to enable them to chase down a couple of geeks with weeds.

This pisses the mohawked mutts off, as does the fact that John stinks of human civilization. They go to give him a taste of Whoopass Stew (1992) before John recites the navy seal copypasta from memory and teaches them some humility via a few well aimed bites and mean names regarding their haircuts. As soon as they realize he's a capable fighter the trio runs off with their tails tucked both metaphorically and literally between their legs.

This is getting bizzare. John's just arrived in this forest and already he's seen two groups of oddballs he can't begin to understand.

Back at the Iga House Gin has brought Akame home. He sets the ninja chief down gently as the other Kishus come to greet them. The Ohu soldiers, most of who are feeling much better now, are also glad to see Gin is still kicking.

Gin's happy to see them as well. He runs over to where they're gathered to more properly say hello. Most dogs are back on their feet, but he can't see the tallest one of them all. He asks where Ben is before realizing by the look on everyone's faces that this isn't a question they want to answer.

The crowd parts to reveal Jinnai has finally gotten Ben to eat his share of antidote. Ben's a hotass mess, though; his eyes are bloodshot, his mouth is foamy with excess saliva, and his muscles are all twitching involuntarily. He looks miserable as he stares aimlessly into the woods.

Akatora comes over to him and offers a friendly nudge and a whispered, "Hey, you okay?" Ben simply responds by snapping at him. Akatora tumbles backwards, stunned that his old friend and mentor would react to him so aggresively.

Akame pads over to Akatora and tells him not to take Ben's bizarre behavior to heart. Ben's had bad shit in his blood longer then everyone else. It's gonna take him a second to come out of this haze.

Luckily the dane seems to be regaining his composure, for he has managed to stand up and steady his limbs. The soldiers seem mostly relieved at the sight, but Gin notices Akame is still staring at Ben in concern. Is there something he's not telling them?

While alla this was going down, Hyena had wandered off by himself and ended up being taken prisoner by the Kogas. Worse still, he's been trafficking the corpses of dead Igas into their slapshod fridge (i.e. a dank, chilly cave).

As he drags the icky, ewwy canine cadavers along, his captures taunt and jeer at him for being both a wuss and their munchie packmule. One particularly nasty looking sucker with no tail tells him to move his ass before they decide to add him to the every-growing pile of carcasses. Hyena just whines miserably and goes back into the body storage. He's just flopped down another lifeless Kishu when he hears a sudden commotion outside. He cowers far back in the cave.

"MORE of these assholes?" says a newcomer. "Jesus, these woods are full of lunatics."

The Kogas have turned to look at their visitor. Three of them point him out as being a direct threat. They'd run into this dickhead in the woods, and though he stinks of men he's more powerful then any housepet they've chomped on before. While the cannibals encircle John, Hyena pokes his head out of the cave just long enough to recognize the GSD as one of the dogs he'd seen at Ohu. What on Earth is HE doing here?

Back at the Iga house the Kishus have organized to face off with the Kogas. Enough is enough. They can't allow any more innocents to get swept up in this stupid war.

Ben is feeling more lucid now and he insists that the Ohu dogs aid the raid against the Kogas. They outnumber the mohawked mongrels together and lbr this has become personal for the troops. Akame worriedly tries to convince Ben not to subject himself or his bros to this, but the dane refuses to leave it alone. Akame reluctantly agrees to let them help and begins leading the way back to the marsh.

Ben is just behind the shinobi, but he's doing a shit job at keeping with the pack. Despite having scolded Gin for running off course, Ben keeps drifting farther and farther off trail. In fact, he's essentially in the treeline now, and a concerned Gin and Cross follow to ask him where he's going.

Ben freezes up. He takes a deep sniff and realizes he's not with the others. Everyone stops running, concerned. Akame attempts to be stoic, but his brow twitches intently.

Ben tells everyone it's nbd bruh, he's just gotta take a piss, it's fine it's fine it's cool it's fine. Akame grunts and tells Kirikaze to continue leading the pack while he checks up on the big guy. Kirikaze nods and directs the others to follow him.

The only stragglers are Gin and Cross. They're both too concerned about Ben to follow orders. The two of them sneak closer to where Akame and Ben are huddled and strain to listen to what they're saying.

Akame looks sadly at Ben as the dane stares blankly ahead.

"Ben," Akame says in a low voice, "look at me."

Ben pauses for a second as if focusing hard, then turns his head. He's not looking at Akame. He's not even close to meeting eyes with him.

"Akame?" he says with a tinge of fear in his voice. "What's happening to me? I can barely see."

Akame sighs and apologizes to Ben for all this. It's a side effect of the poisoning. Ben was doped up on the bad shit long enough that there was potential for it to do some damage to his senses. The eyes and ears are most suseptible to the poison's effects, and it seems like Ben's eyes are feeling the hurt.

Ben's shoulders slump as he softly shakes his head. He figured his sudden astigmatism and fading peripheral vision had been brought on by Akame's bioweapon. He just hadn't wanted to admit it.

Gin is shaken to hear this, but he's not as upset as Cross. The Saluki is trying and failing to contain her tears.

"He'll never see--" she says before running off, unable to stand it anymore. Gin only lets her go when he hears the conversation continue.

Ben asks if he'll become totally blind. Akame says yes. Ben asks if he'll be blind forever. Akame says yes again. Ben asks if he'll be able to keep up his duties as commander. Akame doesn't respond directly but instead tries to soothe the dane by saying that he owes Ben a great debt and will pay it forward by being his eyes.

Ben takes a moment to think before thanking the Kishu, but he has a request. Cross is ready to take his place as commander when he becomes totally incapacitated, but as she was his successor she'll need a right hand dog of her own. Akame figures that all Ben's soldiers are so jacked that any of them would do nicely, but Ben has his eyes (no pun intended) set on one guy in particular.

That kid Gin... he's a good fighter, sure, but he's also young and eager and empathetic. He's got a good head on his shoulders, boundless potential, and clearly has had some training before. Within a few months he'll be fully grown, and by then he'll make a great lieutenant. Gin only now realizes he's been holding his breath.

Meanwhile, John has made quick work of the lingering Kogas, adding those who didn't flee to the abnormally high count of dog bodies in the area. When he's sure it's safe to come out of hiding, Hyena slinks out of the cave to meet John.

John recognizes the little twerp from Ohu mountain, but he's still in Fight or Fight mode so instead of saying hi he just gears up to cream him. Hyena whimpers and begs for mercy, insisting that the Kogas took him as a POW and that he's still loyal to the Ohu army. John rolls his eyes and takes Hyena's word for it before turning to leave.

Hyena dares not be alone in this above-ground graveyard, so he follows John. The shepherd either doesn't realize or doesn't care that Hyena's his new little tagalong. They wander for a bit, Hyena taking every chance he can to suck up to John, before John tells him to shut the fuck up and listen.

The dogs fall quiet. The sound is faint, but they can distinctly hear a low mumbling, or, more accurately, the muffled sound of a crowd speaking amongst themselves. Someone literally barks a command and all the voices fall silent. John nudges Hyena to follow his lead and the two sneak closer to find out what's going on.

As they advance on the group they realize that it's more of the Kogas. The cannibals are having a meeting.

Kurojaki's eye socket has stopped bleeding and instead has collapsed in on itself, the tattered lids laying concave in his skull. He's sitting atop a boulder looking down at his cult as he gently strokes the babyhawk atop his infant heir's head.

As his son mouths absentmindedly at his father's paws, Kurojaki informs his people that now is the time to strike. They've killed several of the remaining Igas and they still have enough people to take on both the ninjas and any allies they bring with them. It's time to take the Iga homestead as their own and secure a glorious future for their breed. And as an added bonus, he thinks to himself, we can fuck up that guy who took my eye.

Hyena and John take a moment to spy on the hoard from afar. Hyena points out the big guy on the rock as Kurojaki, and it's clear as day that he's the leader of this band of hoodlums. John nods and, having learned nothing from his previous ass whooping at the hands of a pack leader, puffs out his chest and readies himself to attack.

John says he's gonna tear the whole lot to smitherines and singlehandedly lower the cannibal population in the area to 0%. Hyena tries to convince him that attacking a warlord in front of his entire legion of followers is a bad idea, but John's ego demands stroking. He's already taken off in a sprint.

The shepherd tears through several of the Kogas before they even realize what's happening. He rips the throat out of one particularly unfortunate bystander who proceeds to tumble to the ground. The miserable cur seizes wildly as he dies.

Everyone is caught so off guard by this development that they don't stop John when he walks up to the bottom of Kurojaki's perch and tells the merle cyclops that his reign of terror is over. Kurojaki has literally no idea what the fuck is going on, but he rolls with the punches and tells John that he'll be crushed like a bug before the group departs on their actual mission. Before any crushing can commence, a rumbling can be heard coming closer.

It's (predictably) the Iga and Ohu dogs. The Kogas have an Oh Shit moment before scrambling into battle position. They're a little wary of the fight given there's an absolute shittonne of dogs running towards them, but Kurojaki tells them not to be a buncha bedwetting babies and fight anyway. He passes his literal bedwetter baby son off to the boy's mother so he can join the brawl. John just shrugs and goes to attack the guy nearest to him.

As army meets army, the blood begins to flow. Despite how much larger the Ohu pack is, it's really anyone's game, for the cannibals' desperation to keep their cause alive pushes them forward. Still, the Ohu dogs are holding their own. Even Ben is managing to fight off his enemies. Unfortunately for Smith, the dane's poor vision throws a spanner in the works, and the Spaniel gets a couple of chomps on the ass. Don't worry about it, Ben, he's young. He'll heal.

As the battle grows more and more out of control, Kurojaki slinks past his men and into the woods in the hopes of baiting one particular target into following him. To his delight, that target falls into his trap; Gin notices him leaving and gives chase.

Gin's too caught up in the task at hand to notice Kurojaki's leading him on purpose, but lucky for him Kurojaki is too caught up in his own plan to notice he himself is being ambushed. Akame saw Gin following the cultist, and he's bolted out of the woods to save Gin's silver hide.

Akame smacks Kurojaki face first into the dirt and is about to give him an atomic noogie when Gin's all like WAIT. Gin lets the cat out of the bag and tells Akame he knows that Ben wants to scootch Gin up the platoon's pecking order. Gin wants to use this chance to wipe the forest floor with Kurojaki to prove that Ben's right to think that.

Akame is a touch offended that Gin's a filthy eavesdropper, but he understands his motivation. He just sorta shrugs and lets Gin face off with the warlord. Gin puts up his doggy dukes and gets the ball rolling with some fighting words.

Meanwhile, everyone else is fighting a Koga of their own and they're doing a good job of it. Even Hyena is making an honest, if hopeless, attempt at mauling one of the smaller guys. He's failing miserably when he's aided by Smith, who follows up his generously saving Hyena's life by mocking him for being a wussypants and asking him why he hasn't fucked off yet.

Hyena wants Smith and the others to appeal the No Hyenas Allowed rule of their club because he's decided to be a good guy now. Smith isn't sure if he believes him, but whatever, the traitor can serve as a canine shield if nothing else. The two continue snapping at their enemies.

As the fight rages on, John makes his presence known to the platoon by leaping beside a bloodied Ben. John manages to choke out a sincere word of praise for the other dogs' fighting abilities before more graciously humbling himself to Ben by proclaiming he's ready to fall in line with his commander's orders. Ben's newly-beshitted eyes are having a hard time recognizing John, but he'd know that stuck-up, twatty voice anywhere. He instantly welcomes the shepherd back into the fold.

Gin and Kurojaki are standing off in earnest now, but they're still not really getting anywhere. They're surprisingly well matched, Gin always managing to strike and Kurojaki always managing to either dodge or deflect. They've only faced off for a few minutes more when the rumble of a bazillion dog feet advances towards them.

The Ohu and Iga dogs have managed to subdue the Kogas and now they're bumbling towards the fighters. To make matters more dramatic, a storm has been brewing. As if called in as reinforcements a bolt of lightening strikes a nearby tree and catches it on fire. With a terrified, "Shit!" Kurojaki turns tail and runs, a frustrated Gin following behind.

But before Kurojaki can run very far, someone calls down to him from above. He breaks stride and looks up. It's Wilson, finally appearing onscreen again for the first time in a while. His long, white muzzle is rippled in a snarl, and he calls Kurojaki a gutless coward for abandoning his men. And it's not just his men he's abandoned. Has he really forgotten about...

...his own son? Wilson suddenly lifts a small, mottled bundle of fur into view. It's Kurojaki's infant child, and he's crying with fright. Though Kurojaki cannot see it, Maya's body is lying beside Wilson as well, her neck broken and twisted at an ugly angle.

Gin freezes and looks on in horror, as do the other soldiers who come to a stop beside him. Everyone wants to stop this but they're too stunned to speak. The sky rumbles as if angry, lightening flashing and illuminating Wilson's spiteful white face.

"T-tesshin!" Kurojaki cries in recognition. "My boy! What are you doing with my boy?!"

"Can a fucking demon like you truly feel love for a child?" Wilson wonders aloud. "You certainly didn't show any mercy towards mine. You've never understood the horror of what you did, but now you will. I'll make you see. I'll make you pay."

Wilson begins to shake Tesshin back and forth by his tiny grey scruff. A sickening chorus of wails and squeals comes from the baby. The other soldiers are appaled by Wilson's vengeance, as is a now very desperate Kurojaki. The Koga master begins climbing uphill after Wilson, his paws splayed far out in front of him as if trying to grasp for his son.

"Stop!" Kurojaki wails desperately. "Please, please stop!"

For the first (and last) time ever both the Ohu and Iga soldiers are in agreement with Kurojaki. They also call out for Wilson to put the child down. Gin feels helpless to stop this injustice. It's cut him to the quick more then any adult dog's endangerment has yet to. Ben tries to reason with Wilson to stop, but he's distracted by Cross. She's quaking with some overpowering emotion that's not exactly anger and not exactly fear.

Kurojaki nears the hilltop as Wilson's swinging quickens and he jostles Tesshin around like a ragdoll. The Koga leaps with an enraged roar at the Collie when suddenly the two of them are joined by Cross. Before any of them can acknowledge her, Kurojaki collides with Wilson without thinking to stop and sends both the collie and his son tumbling off the hill's edge.

Kuroj screams in horror as he sees both Wilson and the baby descend into the dark gorge below, and the army dogs join his yelling as Cross mounts the hill and descends down into the dark behind them.

The wind blows mournfully as Kurojaki stands mouth agape on the hill, staring into the black pit with his remaining eye. So busy was he with his child that he has only now noticed his wife's bloody corpse sprawled beside him. His eye fills with tears.

But the tears evaporate quickly as he's taken by an overpowering fury. He turns to the stunned soliders and swears at them, damns each and every one of them for bringing his wife and child into this. He will singlehandedly kill them all.

In a (half) blind rage, Kurojaki flings himself headlong into the gaping crowd. First he tears into the massive Moss. Then he slashes Akatora up the shoulder, gives John a concussion, brings Ben to his knees, bam, bam, bam.

So powerful is his rage that one would think he's about to make good on his promise of Ohu decimation, and for the first time the soldiers and their newfound allies start backing away from their foe. All except Gin, ofc, whose protagonist moral code is preventing him from faltering.

Kurojaki's all too willing to beat Gin's ass for causing just about every bad thing in his life lately, so he runs at Gin with reckless abandon. Both he and the Akita leap at each other. A shooting star's comet trail follows Gin's arch in the sky.

The symbolism of it is enough to trigger a convenient, empowering flashback in Gin's mind of his maybe-probably-mostly-confirmed-not-dead father defending baby Gin from Akakabuto. He remembers Riki's signature bear-hunting move, a hard bite to the top of the animal's muzzle. Thinking fast, Gin performs this move on the murderous merle mongrel flying towards him.

This catches Kurojaki by surprise just long enough for Gin to rabbit kick the shinobi bastard into the dirt, bloodying both it and his foe's face in the process. Gin lands back on Earth with an equally small amount of grace by spraining every ankle he's got upon landing. He plops down onto his stomach and quivers as his muscles relax, and Kurojaki has been knocked down hard enough that he's not yet making an effort to get up.

The other dogs run forward, panting congrats to Gin for being so awesome and stuff before they move to descend on their enemy.

John makes himself known to Gin a second later when he's like whoa hold up everyone lmao chill, this is Gin's battle and he should be allowed to finish the dude off himself. Gin's just now realized John's returned, but before he can say HUH WHAT John tells him to handle business before he's offered an explanation. Already feeling a bit overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation, Gin turns at a familiar female voice telling everyone to hold their horses.

It's Cross! She's holding a fussy but living Tesshin in her jaws. Beside her is a battered, humiliated looking Wilson. The Collie sways unsurely, totally unwilling to hold anyone's gaze.

While Wilson wallows in his post-attempted infanticide guilt, Cross sets the child down. Kurojaki is a total sack of shit, she says, but he's still this little guy's dad and only remaining parent. This decision can't be made lightly because it will always come back around to affect the kid.

Gin takes this as a chance to stall on his decision and runs over to Cross, overjoyed to see she's still alive. Cross, looking even more tired then you'd expect, gives him a coy wink. She's told him before she has a soft spot for kids, yeah? After all, she's always believed they have the potential to be better then their parents. As she says this she allows Tesshin to toddle up to his daddy and lick his bloody nose.

But it's still ultimately up to Gin whether or not Kurojaki lives or dies. The decision weighs heavily on the kid. Yeah, Kuro is a violent murderer, a cult leader, an advocate of genocide, and an all around assclown, but watching Tesshin lick his deadly dad's face with unconditional affection awakens something in Gin.

He can't shake the memories of his own puppyhood. He was taken too early from his mother and only ever got to be held by his father once before he was forever stripped of the chance to have a peaceful childhood. He's steadfast in his decision to be with these soldiers, but can he truly say he's comfortable subjecting another child to the loss of their innocence?

"Kurojaki," Gin starts. The cannibal king meets Gin's gaze with his single eye. "Get out of here. Take your people with you. Don't ever come back."

Kurojaki understands this is the only chance he's got to leave, so he picks his sorry ass up and leaps with a noticable decrease in elegance into the trees. All he leaves behind him is a puddle of nose blood... and his infant son. Tesshin simply sits beside his papa's nose goo and yips pitifully, too small to understand he's been ditched but having enough cognition to know neither mommy or daddy are with him and he's frightened.

"Miserable piece of shit didn't want the kid as bad as we though," Kurotora grumbles.

The others in the crowd can't help but agree. Some of them believe it's time to kill Kurojaki after all, but Gin tells them to lay off. This whole debacle has been a real fuck of a shit and more unnecessary casualties are only going to make things worse. So long as Kurojaki actually fucks off once and for all, that's all that needs to happen.

A new discussion begins about what's to be done with the baby when the Kai Bros finally take notice of Hyena. Akame thoughtfully dashes off elsewhere as the tiger-striped trio start telling the grey-haired square to get the hell outta here. John breaks up the bloodthirsty posse by explaining that Hyena's lowkey alright actually. John's elaboration on his experience in these woods and his opinion about the Weimaraner doesn't mean much to the Kais given they've never met him before, but Gin helpfully explains that John's an old friend of his who's come to join their ranks.

He gives John a warm, appreciative smile. For a moment he looks very much like the boss smiling proudly at all his troops. John's brow is furrowed as per ush, but he can't help but smile softly back.

But John quickly wipes the smile off his face and gets back to business. Yeah, sorry about leaving the pack initially and all, but he had a bit of self discovery to do. Ya see, John went and battled with the boss. Surprised at his insolence, he's now got the attention of everybody there.

Anyway, John tried to beat the leader into submission, but he failed spectacularly and for the first time he can remember. The experience taught him something he's still too proud to state clearly, but the important thing is that it motivated him to come back. Oh, btw, the big guy himself has a message to share, generously saving the audience from further elaboration on events they've seen take place:

Akakabuto's stronghold is expanding further, and, though on a forgivingly smaller scale then the Ohu dogs, he is also attempting to grow an army of followers. The sonuvabitch may be a horrifying monster, but he ain't fuckin' stupid. He is aware that a massive hoard of dogs are coming to get him, so he's setting up counter measures to stay one step ahead of them. The troops have to hurry and expand their numbers fast, for the battle is rapidly approaching. It's only a matter of time before Akakabuto and his bears begin overtaking human settlements.

This is all well and good, like thanks for the update and all, but everyone becomes distracted by the unmistakable smell of shit burnin' down. Cross is the first to notice the orange-gold light and incredible heat illuminating the woods beyond. The dogs rush over to see what exactly is happening.

It's the Iga manor. The ancient house is quickly going up in flames, much to everyone's surprise. Even more Nani? inducing is the culprit of the mansion toasting himself, Akame.

The Kishu is standing unwavering in front of the burning building. He's grasping a burning tree branch in his mouth, no doubt having gotten it from the tree that had previously been smoldering. The night sky is alight with storm and flame alike as Akame's children run up to him and ask him what the fuck he's done.

Turns out Akame's just tired of the bullshit. He's tired of constantly having to hold off the violent cannibals they have as neighbors. He's tired of living separate from those who could serve as close allies and true friends. He's tired of leading his sons and daughters into battles they cannot win.

Fuck the house, Akame's turning a new leaf. From now on he'll be dedicating his power to the Ohu army's cause and he encourages the remaining Igas to come with. At least then their ability to whoop ass will be useful beyond gang wars.

"Akame!" a ragged voice hollers from somewhere in the woods. "You little coward!"

Everyone looks. It's Kurojaki, his mottled fur caked in dry blood, his single eye bulging. He runs over to the Igas but he doesn't make as if to attack them. Instead, he just keeps yelling, his thoughts spilling like vomit from his mouth.

Akame just HAS to be this extra, doesn't he? First Kurojaki loses his wife. Then his own child is used to humiliate him. And now Akame is burning down the one solace he had left, swiftly destroying his life's mission of overtaking the manor. With one last gibbered out swear Kurojaki leaps into the burning house.

The smell of roasted kindling is quickly laced with, then overpowered by, the stench of burning hair and melting flesh. Kurojaki screams bloody murder as the flames engulf him. Gin gazes into the abyss of Kurojaki's one eye before it pops, bubbles, and oozes down his cheek, its gooey remains soon joined by his eyebrows and the last fringes of his white mohawk. Despite his agony the mongrel makes no effort to escape the flames, instead collapsing without struggle on the immolated wooden floor.

If this whole sight wasn't fucked enough, a whole chorus of desperate cries also approach the house. It's several of the remaining Kogas all hollering out to their leader. Loyalty may be a virtue, but the outpouring of devotion from the cult leads each and every one of the mohawked dogs to leap into the flames alongside their master.

Upon realizing the hoard won't stop making like they're campfire marshmallows, Gin tries to stop them. He's just shoved out of the way. The only Koga who neither leaps into the flames or runs away is baby Tesshin. Instead the child begins nestling into, oddly enough, Wilson's ankle as he watches his family burn to death.

Akame squints into the flames as the Kogas' agonized screams fade away. The cloudy night sky finally starts drip dropping rain down on the scene and working quickly to extinguish the house. Once the flames have subsided everyone gathers to stare into the wreckage.

Gin takes the first step into the charred remains of the manor. The blackened, crumbling corpses of so many canines litter the floor. Gin hasn't felt like crying this much since his first beating from Gohei, but something physically holds him back. He lip trembles as he looks from the bodies to Akame.

Despite everything the shithead put him through, Akame, with poise unmatched by anyone on Earth, respectfully wishes that Kurojaki and his people could have dedicated themselves to a cause that wasn't so heinous. He also wishes that they may now rest in peace. Many years of anguish and war have lead up to this point, but if nothing else it served to prove that Kurojaki had a lotta resolve.

Now that nobody's gonna come in the middle of the night and kill them dead the group allows themselves to settle in and get some shut eye. Everyone is curling up beside each other when Wilson awkwardly walks up to the hoard. Tiny little Tesshin follows behind him.

Wilson seems especially interested in speaking with Gin, who is nestled in between Ben and Cross. While the Collie coyly bows respectfully to Gin, Tesshin recognizes Cross and runs to her so he can tug on her ears.

Wilson apologizes for the whole almost-committing-infantacide thing. He's deeply ashamed of how low he stooped to strike back against his Kurojaki. Now that he's gotten to see him die in literally the most painful way possible, Wilson hasn't got any ill will towards any Kogas anymore, least of all the only truly innocent one. He accepts that what he did was super shitty even if he'd been blinded by immense grief. He wants to do right and contribute to something that matters, so he'd like to know if everyone - Ben, Cross, Gin - would allow him to stay with the pack.

Nobody responds for a moment, though Gin makes as if he wants to say something. Instead the first to speak is Cross. She tells Wilson that despite the immorality of his behavior she understands his pain. She takes a deep breath and places her paw over Ben's, which seems to have signaled him to lean soothingly against her. Cross begins explaining to Wilson - and Gin, just cause he's there - what her life was like before she joined the Ohu army.

Cross was, as most of the folks here were, a hunting dog. She met Akakabuto once or twice out in the wild, but it took her a while to stand off against him in earnest. Before then she had been bred to another Saluki (Ben politely doesn't say anything to this) and had a litter of puppies. She was blessed with the chance to raise and live with her children into their early adult years, but this is Ginga so her backstory wouldn't have been brought up if it'd stayed idyllic forever.

Her master brought her and her 2 year old children along on a hunt one day when the group was met with the pants-shittingly horrifying sight that is Akakabuto. The bear struck one of Cross's sons across the face, snapping his neck and killing him instantly. Cross and her other children tried to defend themselves and their owner, but one by one her kids were brutally murdered.

The only reason Cross herself survived was because when Akakabuto struck her across the back - the thing that left the scars she bears to this day - she took a fall so hard that she couldn't get up and he believed her to be dead.

All throughout this battle Cross and her kids had been looking desperately to their master for help, but he never given it. While they'd tried to defend the man with their lives, he had been running away and leaving them for dead.

Akakabuto eventually grew bored of the dead dogs and left them behind. When she felt some degree of safe, Cross had crawled over to each of her children's corpses and wept into them.

For a while Cross had nothing much to live for. She didn't care about her owner anymore - in fact, she hated just about the whole of humanity at this point sans one human child who had once fed her while she was wandering aimlessly - and her children were all dead. The only thing that kept her going was her hatred for Akakabuto, her burning desire to see him pay for what he'd done to her.

But she had never been a stray before, and despite her strength it was hard to make ends meet. She barely ate enough to fill a cavity most days and she was quickly growing weak, emaciated, and depressed. She'd felt like giving up.

It was around this point when a red and white Akita Inu had found her. At first she had been afraid of him given he was a wild-looking, battlescarred character with an unreadable face, but he'd shown her a kindness she hadn't felt for a long time. He'd lead her back to his pack, an impressively large collective of other former hunting dogs, and told them that she was their guest. They were to treat her with kindness and feed her back to health before letting her go.

The soldiers were mostly nice to her, if a bit awkward regarding her emotional state. Most of them were dudes and the chicks in the bunch were more about biting and killing then offering any TLC. There was one dog who was especially kind to her, though. His name was Ben (Ben smiles and twitches his ears at the mention of his name), and he was an extremely noble, involved dog who lead the first platoon. She and him instantly clicked, and so they became fast friends.

Cross quickly regained her lost weight and, with Ben's help, regained her lost muscle mass... and then some! So grateful was she for both Ben's kindness and the boss's generosity that she insisted she stay with the pack. She humbly requested membership to the first platoon, promising that she could keep up with the others. She even offered to train under Ben's supervision if need be.

The leader had smiled at her and responded with a gentle nod and a twinkle in his eye. The rest, as they say, is history.

So engrossed in Cross's story was Gin that he'd barely noticed when Wilson laid down beside them. He also didn't really notice when Ben told Wilson that he was welcome so long as he used violence as a means of achieving peace, not as a means of releasing his anger. Nor did he notice when Tesshin wobbled over to Moss and his son and was happily invited to spend the night tucked between the pudgy Mastiff's enormous paws.

But he does notice when Cross winks at him and tucks herself tightly against her doghusband, and he takes this as a sign that storytime is over.

Gin settles in beside his friends to sleep, now better understanding the depth of their devotion. As he dozes he imagines Riki (or, at least, the dog who looks a shittonne like Riki) offering shelter to a boney Cross, training up gentle giant Ben, and lovingly smiling down from his perch at his ever-growing pack.

He imagines the Riki Dog smiling down at him, too, and reaching out a paw to him. Before he can imagine himself touching paws with the boss he fades into a deep, dreamless sleep.

At the buttcrack of dawn the troops head out. They're now joined by John, Wilson, the remaining Igas, and even Kurojaki's little son (who Moss has begun happily carrying around in between the folds on his back). The mission to find more soldiers continues on, and all the dogs begin the journey southward to scope out more canine meatheads for their cause.

Bust out the water wings, folks, because the troops are headed to the seaside. Gin's never seen the ocean before, so he's super weirded out by so much water in one place. John considerably refrains from mocking him for not  knowing what the sea is and explains that crossing the ocean is necessary to reach different countries. Given that John once lived in some mysterious land called Your Up, Gin takes his word for it.

The gang boards an abandoned ship half submerged in the ocean. Gin takes a chance to gaze over the edge and into the water below. His eyes sparkle with curiosity as the waves wash to and fro before the boat.

His gaze follow the waves as they go out and out and out further and further away, the expanse of water stretching out miles ahead. Also miles ahead is a mass of land that looks no larger then a grain of rice. Gin excitedly calls out that he's found a foreign country.

Wilson politely tells Gin that he's got a good eye, but that's not a foreign country. It's just Shikoku. Ole Willy used to travel there frequently during his circus days, and it's also where he met nomadic Mortal Enemy #2.

Before Wilson has a chance to elaborate, Ben interrupts. He closes his foggy eyes and takes in the sounds of the waves before saying that yeah, Shikoku's pretty lit. Lotsa bodybuilder types over there, dogs specifically bred and raised for battle. This fills Gin with the sort of glee that'd seem excessive in a hyperactive schoolgirl. Gin begs the dane to let him go on a field trip to Battle Dog Island.

Everything is a blurry mass of God-knows-what in Ben's eyes, but even he can tell Shikoku is a long ways away. He asks how exactly Gin plans on getting there, to which Gin responds with, "Swimming, of course." This is foolish, obviously, as doggy paddling that far through these waters would be impossible. Ben kindly but firmly tells Gin that he'll be just as much help in gathering troops here.

Ben turns with a degree of finality back into the captain's quarters, his face turning redder then normal as he bonks his muzzle into the doorframe. Despite his upset at being denied permission to abandon ship Gin follows after him in concern when Wilson calls him back.

He tells Gin that he's sorry the kid can't come, but Ben knows best. Gin disagrees - he HAS to go. It's his duty to take Ben's place on the trip, for the newly disabled dog won't make it very far in these conditions.

Several of the dogs seem confused about what this means before Gin passes around volume 3 of the manga and catches them up to speed on how Ben's poisoning has started sapping away his sight. As some of them "ohhhhhhhh" in realization, Smith chimes in with a haven't you people ever heard of not leaving the commander of a platoon behind.

John insists that Gin's a tough cookie, perfect to take Ben's place. So long as he has his immaculate bestie beside him, ofc. He'll be going with Gin, too. Not wanting to be left out, Smith also insists on going. So do the Kai Bros. So does Wilson.

Cross looks as if she wants to say something, but she restrains herself. Gin notices and asks her if she'd like to Come Along by Cosmo Sheldrake. She unconvincingly says she'd love to but she can't leave Ben alone in his condition. It's pretty obvious she's keeping something from everyone, but before they can pry she trots off to join Ben in his quarters.

Smith mutters about how he thinks Cross has been looking a little differently lately but he can't quite put his paw on how. Gin doesn't say anything. Instead he just watches her leave.

Nighttime comes right on schedule. The Ohu dogs are sprawled across the poopdeck, pooped from their travels. Most of them are asleep, but some are only pretending to snooze.

Gin is one of those fakers. He slowly and quietly gathers the other pretenders to join him towards the front of the ship. He has a moment of hesitation before leaping into the water when he sees how aggressive the waves are tonight, but he tries not to show any doubt. This has to be done.

Just before he's about to go, the ever-so-gentle scrapping of claws on wood directs his attention behind him. The gathered gang looks back and sees the Igas are also awake and eager to join them.

Akame feels it's his responsibility to lighten Ben's load in this regard. He'll be leaving the near-sighted dog in the care of Papa Moss. Besides, God only knows what the dogs in Shikoku are like, so why not bring a ninja along just in case? Finally satisfied with the group's size, everyone gathers their courage and jumps into the ocean.

Huge black and blue waves toss the dogs around as they struggle to stay afloat. Smith hesitates at the boat's edge upon realizing what sorta Jackass stunt they're pulling here, but he can't back out now. He gives a loud squeak as he cannonballs into the water.

John's rolling his eyes and mocking Smith's masculinity from the boat when he realizes that he can see a pair of eyes glimmer from nearby. Someone is awake and moving towards them! "Oh shit," John manages as he leaps gracefully in after the others.

Turns out that the nosy parker was just Cross. Upon seeing everyone abandon ship she comes trotting, then running, to the deck's edge. She can just make out the shining wet fur of the dogs in the ocean. She hopes aloud that they'll make it.

A confused, groggy voice from behind her catches her attention. She turns to see that Ben has woken up. Moss is trailing behind, a still snoozing Tesshin draped across his broad forehead. Ben asks Cross what she's doing awake. All is still. The silence speaks volumes, and Ben realizes that Gin has taken off in one of his hare-brained schemes again. Cross is about to defend the kid's decision when Ben sorta just shrugs and sighs.

Ben figures that when someone like Gin gets an idea in his head, he won't abandon it. He'll either learn his lesson the hard way or live to do them all a great service, and Gin's proven time and time again he's not likely to up and die on them. Besides, the dane admits, he kinda wanted to ask Gin to ride (swim?) shotgun anyway, but he couldn't justify asking the youngest troop to do it. Though Ben can't see the dogs swim away he still looks out towards the sea.

The dogs swim for a longass time, paddling in their namesakeway as the waves threaten to toss them into space. Shikoku both is and isn't as far away as they imagined, and this eats away at their patience while they grow more and more tired. Gin is capable of leading the charge given his childhood waterboardings but he's also losing steam.

The only thing keeping him moving is the sliver of moonlight above. When the partial moon is intercepted by the clouds, the shape it forms bears resemblance to Riki's silhouette atop his Throne Hill. Gin can't let the big man down.

After a while the dogs come across a reprieve from their struggle: a tiny island, little more then a small hunk of muddy, sandy land sticking up out the water. Shikoku isn't much further now, but the whole lot is swung out. There's just enough room on the puny isle to allow everyone refuge for the night.

The dogs all adorably snuggle up beside each other to keep warm against the cold ocean winds. As Gin rests his head across John's shoulders he takes one last peek at the moon. The Riki Clouds have vanished. He just sighs and closes his eyes.

Night turns to day and things are getting interesting in Shikoku. A nationwide dog fighting tournament is in full swing, making everyone reading this instantly a little less comfortable. In this particular fight, two Tosa dogs named Niouryu ("Nio dragon") and Musashi ("master warrior") are duking it out to a screaming crowd of weirdos who like watching dogs sumo wrestle.

Musashi's gotten the drop on Niouryu and is clearly winning via attempted strangulation. For the sake of saving Niouryu's life and so as I never have to write that name again, the fight is broken up and Musashi is declared winner.

This is very exciting news for the Musashi fans in the crowd because it means that the dude has won the Dog Wrastling championship for the 2nd year in a row. True, he's working his way up from middleweight to heavyweight, but this ain't no small potatoes. Musashi's unmatched prowess is celebrated as he is donned in traditional championship garb. The dog proudly holds his scarred head high as he gazes wistfully into the distance. His nose twitches as he detects something strange on the wind.

Musashi's trainer takes him back to his kennel alongside several other competitors. All of the dogs, Mushie Boy included, begin barking, seemingly alerted to something nearby. Musashi's trainer doesn't know what to make of this so he leaves the kennel to go snooping around in the hopes of finding the source of the dogs' intruige.

Unseen to all but the fighters' noses, the Ohu dogs reveal that they've made it to Shikoku by posing mysteriously atop the high stone wall surrounding the kennels. Gin gazes down at Musashi. They GOTTA get this guy to join the army.

The Ohu dogs climb down from the wall and disappear into the nearby woods until the sun begins to set and all the humans are gone. The kennel dogs have just settled in when the same smell from before recaptures their interest. Musashi growls but refrains from barking when he sees three synchronized silhouettes approach his cage.

"Who is it? Who's there?" Musashi says with all the confidence of a lion who's punched God to death.

The shadows whisper in low voices that that's not important right now. What is important is that Musashi agrees to come with.

Musashi doesn't feel like missing bedtime so he tells them to fuck off. One of the silhouettes, the one missing an ear, tells him that if he doesn't willingly join their canine convoy they're gonna force him to. Musashi demonstrates that this is an incredibly stupid thing to say to a fighting champion in a way that surprises the trio. He knows how to open his kennel and he's feeling cranky. He grabs the one eared dog as the stripey group tries to scatter.

Luckily for the Kai Kens the other kennel dogs are barking up a storm, all jerring and yelling FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. This noise would serve only as an irritant if it didn't cause someone, a human, to call out in confusion. A light inside a nearby building turns on.

Moments later the circular beam of a flashlight can be seen from the other side of the yard. Musashi has an Oh Shit moment and releases the dog he's holding. He tells the three that he's impressed by their ballsiness, but if they wanna live to see another day they need to pound pavement.

The dogs seem less afraid of Musashi's threats then they do of the man with the light. As the man calls out to the dogs the three brindles scramble out of the yard, each making a beeline for the treeline. Once he's certain they've left, Musashi meekly sits down and waits for his master to come find him. The man joins him within a moment and scoffs, scolds Musashi for breaking out again, and finally leads the dog back to his kennel.

The Kai Bros (btw it was so obviously the Kai Bros who came aknocking on Musashi's door) start heading back into the forest, kicking pebbles in their path and muttering about how it sucks ass that they didn't successfully kidnap someone to fight a war with them. As Chutora and Kurotora begin detailing just how much ass the situation sucks, Akatora tells them to shut their yapholes and hide. Someone - a LOT of someones, it smells like - are following them. The brothers dive into the bushes.

An asstonne of quadrapedal silhouettes dot the hills nearby. The strangers smell unfamiliar and are poised as if they mean business so Akatora tells everyone to head back to Gin. His littermates start whining about how running away isn't very cash money of them but Akatora nips them on the backsides to move them along. By this point he wouldn't have needed to put tooth to butt. The pack has descended from their vantage point and is headed straight for them.

The trio takes off in a gallop as tens of angry looking dogs, all barking and yelling for the intruders to stop, give chase. Kurotora's got a terrible Napoleon complex going on so he gives up running and instead tries to fight some of the dogs away. This backfires phenominally badly because the pack swiftly overpowers him, then overpowers his bros when they come running to his defense. Manly, agonized screams ring out in the night.

Somewhere insultingly close by Gin and his coterie have noticed the commotion. John proposes that sending the most overzealous and tactless of them to convince a champion fighter to leave his home wasn't a great decision. Though Gin realizes he fucked up by doing this, he's too proud to show the embarassment he feels for his idea. Instead he just tells everyone they oughta go see what the screaming's for so as to make sure they're not down three soldiers.

The troops head deeper into the forest, each keeping their eyes peeled and ears open to see if they can find the disappeared brothers. The Igas try to contribute to the search by leaping through the trees and ahead of the pack. The thick smell of an unfamiliar group lingers in the air, but no one can be seen.

No, wait, there is someone there. A sliver of moon shine casts a dim spotlight over a muscular dog carrying something red and black and striped all over. It's Musashi! He's got a concerned look on his face and a busted up Akatora stretched across his back.

"I'm guessing the Kai brothers didn't convince you to come peacefully?" Smith asks, the urge to alleviate the situational tension clouding his manners.

Musashi shrugs and allows Akatora to slip from his shoulders and onto the ground. Gin quickly looks over the Kai Ken as John snaps at Musashi for doing this to their friend. Musashi's eyes grow wide and spiteful. He tells the dogs to lay off for chrissakes. Believe it or don't, he's here to help. Akatora agrees in a choked voice; Musashi rescued him when he was too injured to save his brothers.

Gin asks Musashi to explain what the shit's happening so the Fite Club veteran lays it all out. The triplets were attacked by a pack that lives in these here parts, a pack that's lead by a dastardly bastard whos exploits encourage gossip even among the most seasoned of fighting dogs. This aforementioned bastard goes by Bandit Bill, and he's a notoriously brutal brown doberman who lives in an abandoned Buddhist shrine. He's a territorial sort and was probably upset that a buncha insolent strays came piddlefarting around his domain.

Before Musashi goes on about Billy the Kid he gives a broken smile and says he'd gone to follow the obnoxious brothers upon realizing that they might have ties to the giant army of dogs that's been growing and moving across Japan. Gin gapes, somehowhaving been oblivious to how a nomadic collective of dedicated troops might catch the populace's attention.

Musashi states that he's glad the army seems real because it means he can be flattered at how they've come to recruit him. Bee tee dubbya, he's totally down to join them. He's been a fighting dog long enough for it to get dull. The old man is ready to live out the rest of his life as one big adventure.

A second later a white dog drops down from the trees. It's Akame here to say that he and the other fair furred folk have managed to locate Chutora and Kurotora. The good news is that they're still alive. The bad news is that they're in front of a weird, ancient looking monument swarming with buff-looking dogs. Musashi confirms that that's Bill's pad, though he doesn't understand why Bill would keep trespassers around instead of just killing them.

Gin immediately announces a rescue mission. Musashi tells everyone to hold their horses. He's gonna go home and bring back his posse to help sort this out. Bill isn't a bloodthirsty idiot - standing in front of him isn't a death sentence - but he needs to know these guys have backup. It'd also be easier for locals to get information outta him  as opposed to new guys from across the sea. Better to talk then fight, yeah?

Musashi departs while warning the troops that it'll be a hot minute before he busts open all the kennels at home, but he swears he'll be back by morning. Given there's not much they can do til Musashi gets back, the dogs set up camp for the night. The night seemingly passes without incident, and the crowing of a rooster can be heard as the sun rises.

Wait, did I say rooster? Oopsie! I meant Smith starts shrieking to the other soldiers that OH SHIT, GIN IS MISSING. John wakes with a start at his friend's name, and as soon as he's truly concious there's no doubt in his mind as to where Gin is.

Predictably Gin has run off to solve this problem by himself. Only this time he has a moment of self reflection. He realizes aloud that he very often ends up helping, yes, but he also has the habit of tying situations in big, complicated knots by making decisions on the fly... just like he's doing right now.

And yet he can't say he feels remorse for it. He doesn't have the time to. He needs to save his friends. He needs to prove himself to Ben. He needs to do this to protect the village, the people, his family, his Daisuke.

The ancient monument, Bill's Bandit Bed-n-Breakfast, is lookin' pretty eerie in the shady woods. The only thing that makes the dark, imposing forest more intimidating is the two dog heads sticking out of the dirt smack dab in the middle of the monument's front yard. It's Chutora and Kurotora, and both are exhausted from struggling to escape their halfassed graves. A deep, slimy voice cackles triumphantly as something lithe, black, and endlessly shitty exits the building.

It's General Sniper! The bastard merrily licks his lips as he watches the Kais struggle to free themselves from the Earth's unwelcome hug. Mr. S is just about to go on about how great he is or some shit when a dog from Bill's pack, one who had totalled the Kai Bros, runs into view and tells him there's an issue. They have a visitor, someone none of Bill's crew has ever seen before. Sniper runs to the arch out front.

Gin's parked his little silver ass just in front of the arch and is refusing to explain to any of Bill's soldiers why he's here until he has council with Billiam The Bad Guy himself.

"I am a representative of the leader of Ohu," he says in the deepest voice he can muster, "and I shall tell you no more. Please allow me to speak to your boss."

"Oh, no, I don't think that's going to happen," Sniper says snidely.

Gin is surprised to see the hoodlum here, but Sniper doesn't explain himself. Instead, his brow crinkles cruelly as he repeats what Gin said: so, he's here to rep for Ohu, huh? Got himself a promotion, ey? How charming.

Sniper turns to Bill's men and explains that this stupid kid's boss is a tyrant trying to take over Shikoku's prime real estate, ignoring Gin's protests and cries of What The Hell Dude. Bill's men approach Gin to tackle him, but Gin leaps past them before they can.

Gin continues to frog-hop his way onto the front lawn where he's shocked to find two of his compadres buried alive. Little Chu and Kuro, Too yell at him to get out, it's a trap! But Gin's too stubborn to listen. He ignores their pleading begins trying to dig them out instead.

While Gin is distracted, Sniper launches himself into the Akita and sends him flying. Gin quickly rights himself, his nose bleeding, and swears aloud while telling Sniper it's unsportsmanlike to strike from behind. The little German chickenshit better be ready to fight because his treason will not go unpunished.

Sniper yells a barrage of death threats at Gin as if all of Twitter is rushing through his veins when he hears one of Bill's men call for everyone to retreat. Sniper looks up and dumbly utters a confused "Huh?". The Ohu dogs have caught up to Gin, and they're here to stop this madness!

Sniper tells Bill's troops not to puss out of a fight. They've got enough dogs to rival these suckers. The troops comply and the fur starts to fly. For a moment it seems like the Ohu dogs will be able to swiftly end this battle. Unfortunately, they lose the upper hand just as swiftly.

Sniper has made his way over to Kurotora and he's got his fangs pressed up against the black brindle's jugular. He mumbles through a mouthful of dog neck that the Ohu folks must surrender to The Bill Brigade or else he'll start killing the helpless hostages. Gin blurts out for the Ohu dogs to stop fighting without a second thought. Sniper responds by telling his ex-army not to move or else the stripey guy gets it.

Bill's fighters take this as a chance to start beating the shit outta the now motionlss soldiers. Gin's eyes fill with tears of frustration and realization at the severity of the impossible situation before them. Before anyone can die, however, someone else comes in and smacks Sniper so hard he flies back a few feet.

It's another Doberman, a brown and tan one with sunken eyes. This other pinscher says in a deep, silken voice that Sniper can kindly fuck off with this sadism. Bandit Bill can handle his own intruders, thank you very much. Besides, he doesn't believe in killing for the fun of it. If Sniper wants to be his right-hand man he needs to respect the rules of Bill's domain.

Sniper half-snarls, half-whines to Bill about how all is fair in love and war. Gin tells his cliche ass to shut up because the Ohu lads aren't here to fight. They're here to ask for help.

Before any more nonsense can go down someone calls ahoy from the arch. It's Musashi! The big man has kept true to his word and has brought tens of his fighting buds with him, many more dogs then the Ohu guys knew lived in his kennel. Indeed a small army of Tosas trail behind Musashi-sama as he steps up to greet Bill.

Mushmush asks in the voice of a gossiping old biddy if Billy has heard of these guys. They're bear hunters with good intentions, ya know. Bill says that yeah, he's heard about the bear stuff, but their former general here has a different story to tell.

Gin insists Sniper is a big fat stupid ugly liar. They're not here to steal land or dominate Shikoku or whatever, they deadass just need soldiers for their cause. Musashi interjects by saying he's not one to get involved in work place drama. To him it seems the real issue is that Gin and Sniper need to settle a beef they've been fostering. Bill appreciates the sentiment (as well as any chance he gets to watch a good fight), so he agrees. Let these two handle this shit the old fashioned way: with tooth and nail.

Gin licks the tacky, drying blood from his nose and dives at Sniper so as to get this party started. Sniper catches him off guard and sends him flying into a tree's trunk. Gin starts scrambling to his feet but he's not quick enough to dodge Sniper snagging him by the scruff of the neck. John almost rushes forward to intervene when Akame restrains him and assures him that they can save Gin if it comes to it, but they'd better hang back in case they upset Bill.

Sniper wildly moves his jaw around and leaves big bloody slashes across Gin's neck, his teeth fumbling around the kid's collar. Realizing he can't tear Gin's throat out with the big leather slab in the way, Sniper has another idea. He tells everyone to watch what happens when you fuck with Mr. S as he gives Gin's neck a hard squeeze and an even harder twist. All the dogs gape in horror as they hear a bizarre, powerful snap. Sniper releases his grip on Gin's neck and the Akita tumbles to the dirt.

John swears loudly. He wastes no time in detailing how he's gonna shove Sniper's ass down his throat when a weak cough makes everyone aware that Gin is still moving. Even Sniper is surprised as the dogs watch Gin hobble to his feet.

Blood is oozing from Gin's clearly not-broken neck. Just before one can say "wait so like what happened", Gin's leather collar slips off his shoulders and hits the ground with a small thump. A white tear in the leather ring explains the strange breaking noise.

For just a second Gin is lost in the memory of when he was given the collar. It wasn't Gohei who'd bestowed it upon him. It had been Diasuke. The boy had said that it had once been worn by Gin's dad, which may or may not have just been a cover for a convenient purchase from Pet Smart. Regardless, Gin silently thanks Daisuke for giving him protection he didn't even know he had, and he thanks God himself for giving him the massive muscles he needs to tear Sniper a new one.

And tear he does, for he begins giving this asslancing all he's got. He runs rings around Sniper, leaps down upon him from the trees, and finishes off his display of hypermasculinity by swinging the Doberman from a hind leg until the pitiful would-be dictator cries out for him to stop.

Gin does indeed stop, but not without placing a humilation cherry on this assbeating sundae. He swings the pinscher into a branch of a tree. When he lets go all can see that Sniper's dangling from the branch by his spiked collar.

"Shit! Damnit!" Sniper howls, defeated. "Let me down! Someone let me down!" But nobody comes to his aid. Either they're too stunned or, like Smith, are laughing at the ridiculous sight. Bill takes Sniper's dangling very seriously, though, and he calls up to Sniper that he's ashamed to be the same breed as him. Then he turns to Musashi with a smile. He would be giving a slow, polite clap if he had hands.

Gin relishes the moment by boldly telling Sniper to never show his ugly mug again because he's the one dog alive, the one dog in the whole world, who Gin will never forgive. The youngin gives the stuck up commander one last chance to fuck off and live peacefully elsewhere. Sniper only responds with more swearing and even more desperate pleas for help.

Gin thanks Musashi for his backup. He's about to thank Bill too when the Doberman takes a step back. Oh no, he's not getting buddy-buddy with anyone yet.

Musashi looks like he's about to roll up his non-existant sleeves and convince Bill otherwise when the dobie explains: Bill would like to meet this Ohu Boss guy himself before deciding if he's gonna join anyone else's army. He's willing to go with, but no promises on whether or not he'll be killing any bears.

Gin figures this is as good as it's gonna get, so he nods and welcomes Bill into the fold. John playfully elbows Gin in the side. This is all well and good, but it's about time to get back to Ben, yeah?

Before everyone can start planning the cruise back, Musashi stops them and gives them a tip. There's an even stronger dog who lives out here, some dude who's rumored to be the strongest in the world. The Ohu troops look intrigued. Some of them excitedly ask Gin if he'd like to meet this superdog. Of course Gin's like HELL YEAH. The dogs all depart, leaving Sniper cursing and swaying from the tree.

And so all three of the packs (the Ohu soldiers, Musashi's crew, and Bill's cronies) join together and start their trek to meet the world's strongest dog. Next stop: the city of Uwajima. Gin allows Musashi to show them the way, but he can tell by how his men fall in behind him that they're really taking his lead.

Gin can't help but feel a warm sense of pride well up inside him. He hopes he can be as good a commander as Ben. He hopes he can do right by the Ohu leader.

After another day long road trip the dogs emerge panting from the forest onto a cliff overhanging a seaside city. Seemingly having remembered all the times Ben refused to speak up about his own prospective recruits, everyone quickly asks Musashi to describe the dog they're after. Musashi's less reserved then Benny is so he settles on his haunches and launches into a story for the ages.

Benizakura ("crimson cherry blossom") is his name, and dog fighting is his game. The dude is an astoundingly tall and muscular Tosa Inu mix as well as an honored veteran in the fighting world. Legend has it he was born 10 years ago in Japan's snowiest mountain region. He was born to two village mutts of unknown ancestory and for a while he was a simple housepet. That was before he turned 2, at which point his master realized there was money to be made off of him after having seen him tear a cheeky village dog he hated he limb from limb.

By the age of 3 Benizakura had effectively dominated the dog fighting championships. He'd body slamming his way through medium, then large, then heavyweight dogs one by one. He traveled all over Japan and had made his mark on history by never losing a single fight. It came as a surprise to nobody when he finally entered the running for the nation's top canine yokozuna (highest rank in sumo wrestling.)

When he'd clawed his way to the big leagues, his greatest opponent was Japan's then-current champion yokozuna. This dog was an equally imposing purebred Tosa named Tsuna Arashi ("rope storm"). Tsuna was no spring chicken - by this point he'd been about 8 or 9 years old - but he'd spent the last 6 years of his life claiming and reclaiming his championship title. Though it was apparent upon their first meeting that Tsuna respected Benizakura's perserverance, the champ had no intention of letting the younger dog take his glory.

Musashi says that this fight was one for the books which I guess makes it highly unfortunate that dogs can't read. Hell, even the wet-behind-the-biceps kids Musashi used to train would recount it with awe.

See, the two dogs' gameness had been admirably strong. They'd never once relented in their assault of each other. Not when their muscles began to quake, not when they drooling bloody spittle, not when Benizakura's ears had been torn to ribbons. Kick, bite, snarl, tear, claw, throw, strike.

Their faces wet with blood and their muscles failing, neither dog refused to give in. And because of that the match's thirty minute time limit came to an end. No decided victor could be decided between them.

Tsuna Arashi was carted away by his master and Benizakura was left in an exhausted rage. He hadn't won. He hadn't even lost. He'd gotten nothing. Nothing at all but a face full of scars and two ragged stumps where his ears used to be.

Time passed without much incident for Benizakura as he continued his training at home. He still had the respect of his peers, and the dude was as strong as ever. His ears couldn't be saved, but they could be cropped, and so his master gave him a battle crop so low his stumpy little ear nubs were almost flush with his skull.

After a few more months of training Benizakura's owner suggested a rematch against Tsuna, but the dog's owner declined. Tsuna was an old fart by now. His eyes were riddled with cataracts, he had developed diabetes, and he was ready to retire. And so Benizakura was blue balled cruelly by fate, never managing to win himself that championship from his greatest foe.

Musashi pauses for a moment before Gin asks what happened after that. Musashi continues his tale of whoopass woe by detailing that, being a dog and not having the context to these conversations, Benizakura never stopped itching for a chance to beat Tsuna Arashi for real. He'd continued his training, continued his hoping.

Three years later just before his 6th birthday, Benizakura finally felt ready to try again. When he came to realize Tsuna would never return on his own accord, Benizakura had busted out of his kennel and gone to find Tsuna himself.

Benizakura crossed water and shore and forest to find Tsuna Arashi, and eventually he did. What he found horrified him. The blind, elderly dog was locked in a pen and being chewed up and spat out piece by piece by the next generation of fighting dogs.

Tsuna Arashi had become a miserable bait animal biding his time til one of his master's newest pupils got too overzealous and handled him just a little too roughly. The sight stopped Benizakura's blood cold. It was then that he'd realized that if he stayed in the fighting game this would be his future, too.

Enraged at the injustice of it all, Benizakura leapt into Tsuna's pen and killed the other dogs, their humans looking while the beast of an animal ripped their livelihoods apart. And this is what they would call him from now on: The Beast. A fitting name given his mauled appearance and massive stature.

But Benizakura either didn't notice the humans screaming or he didn't care. Covered in blood, he'd merely leapt out of the pen just as swiftly as he'd leapt into it, this time leaving a dazed and confused Tsuna Arashi behind.

Since then Benizakura hasn't returned to his OG master. Hell, the only evidence that he may still be alive at all is the fact that Uwajima locals catch a glimpse at him now and again. The Beast has become a sort of Japanese Bigfoot. Though the muscleman lives as a cryptid nowadays, Musashi swears by his belief that The World's Strongest Dog is still alive. The hard part will be finding him.

Meanwhile, back at the ship the Ohu dogs have claimed as a temporary home base, Cross has been left in charge because both Moss and Ben have had to take off due to pressing circumstances. Cross is pretty miffed at being left behind, but Ben had just assured her that her service is appreciated and he'd be back in a jiffy.

Problem is that several jiffies end up passing by as Cross waits and she's getting tired of leading troops on simple hunting missions. These dogs can take care of themselves without someone telling them how to hold down the fort. But what about Gin?

Gin's nearing 2 years now, but he's still so young and has so little experience. Dogs don't have cell phones or group chats so there's really no way to tell how he's doing. And so Cross nudges a subordinate named Luke, a speckled pointer mix, and tells him to take care of business while she gets the scoop on the wayward pooches.

Luke seems bashful in accepting, trying to murmur out something about how Cross might not be in the best way to brave the sea, but Cross won't be having it. She says her goodbyes and then dives into the waves. The tide has settled exponentially but the ocean still does a good job at knocking her around.

While Cross is boogie boarding, Wilson and Gin are poking around the peaceful streets of Uwajima. Most of what they see is quiet, amiable people going about their business, but there is one especially loud something happening nearby. Gin says it sounds like a lotta hooplah for boring city stuff, but Wilson disagrees.

Willy had once traveled here when his circus made its rounds in Shikoku and, if memory serves correctly, bull baiting is a common sport in the region. That's probably what they're hearing now. He assures Gin it's not worth getting involved - bulls don't fight bears - but Gin ignores him and goes to see anyway.

The two make like everyone in this damn story does and stand atop a hill overlooking the bullfight. It's a big runny-aroundy event taking place inside a wooden pen surrounded by hooting, hollering humans. Several of them are cheering for someone called "Don", and in the pen with a very pissed-off bovine stands an absolute unit of a dog.

Gin's eyes widen as he examines the pooch: massive Ginga pecs, Tosa Inu mix, ears cropped almost flat against his head. It's him. It must be him. Benizakura. Wilson tries to explain that Musashi said Benizakura is more like a sasquatch then a regular sports enthusiast, but Gin just excitedly grasps at Wilson's fluffy white chest and tells him to look, look! As the two watch, the dog, presumably the aforementioned Don, uses all his chunk to snag the immature bull by the neck and flip it over using its center of gravity against it. The crowd goes fucking nuts, and too Gin is beside himself with delight. Wilson concedes that maybe, just maybe, this dog IS the strongest in the world.

Someone in the pin comes and separates Don from the bull. As he does so a young boy comes running up to grab Don by the neck and shower him with praise. The old dog seems pretty pleased with himself, holding his head high as the onlookers cheer.

Wilson's not entirely convinced this dude is Benizakura, but he does believe that the army could use this veritable canine tank in their ranks. He asks Gin how he proposes they get the Hulk Hogan of animals to come with. Gin deadass just takes off in a run.

Wilson calls out to Gin to slow his roll, but this roll ain't stoppin' anytime soon. Gin leaps over several gawking onlookers, each one alarmed and confused. Then the Akita aims right for Don while yelling, "Forgive my rudeness, Benizakura!"

The old dog falters, confused. He poses as if ready to take a blow from Gin, but no blow comes. Instead Gin pulls the canine equivilent of a pantsing and yoinks Don's collar from around his neck.

Don's boychild seems insulted that Gin dare makey his dog nakey and demands he drop it, bad dog, spit it out. Don stands growling at the Akita and Gin stands growling back in return. Gin's worried for a split second that this dude might really just be some random guy, but his fears fade when the old dog snarls through a face full of scars, "Who are you? How do you know my real name?"

Gin smiles around the collar in his mouth as he's overcome with relief. But he doesn't get more then a moment to enjoy having found the living legend because the big guy is running towards him, scolding him for his unorthidox greeting and offering him a similar one in kind. A huge white paw lashes out at Gin's face, smacks him silly, and throws him off his feet.

Wilson watches in a panic on the hill. He wishes he had either backup or a unicycle so he could fix this mess. Benizakura Confirmed lashes a paw out at Gin's face once more, only this time Gin has the foresight to brace himself against it.

The crowd seems stunned that a dog only 2/3rds "Don's" size could stop his strike. Wilson is equally surprised. So is Benizakura.

Upon remembering that they paid to be here, several people in the crowd encourage the new Little Guy to give his all against "Don" while others encourage the sumo vet to snap the youngster over his knee. But Benizakura doesn't do anything escept look intently into Gin's eyes, staring like he means to find something.

Gin smiles his soft, goofy smile once more and tells Benizakura this is what the lawbooks call a case of Pinch, Poke, You Owe Me A Coke. He only struck Benizakura once. Benizakura has struck him twice. Big Man owes him a free hit, and he'll be coming back for it later.

Benizakura seems first confused, then insulted, then confused again by Gin's forwardness. And with nothing more then a wink and a duck, Gin leaves Benizakura behind, foot raised and jaw slack.

Gin leaps back out of the pen and joins Wilson. The crowd goes nuts once again, this time because they're all wondering what the shit they just saw. Wilson and Gin quickly depart.

The Collie scolds Gin for putting so many human eyes on them. Gin says he'll explain why he did what he did later, but for now they need to let everyone know that The Beast lives. Not only that, but he'll be expecting to see Gin again.

On a familiar shoreline, a white mass of hair is lawling miserably around the sand. The fuzzy mop turns out to be a dog, and the dog turns out to be Cross. She didn't stop and take a break like the other dogs but instead swam until she'd reached Shikoku. Her unusually wide sides heave as she coughs up sea water. She tries to settles down for a second, but her ears don't follow her lead. They perk up when she hears a commotion nearby.

Her legs are killing her, but she hobbles to her feet and sways tiredly as she follows the sound of someone - no, several someones - speaking. One of the voices is high and desperate while the other two are deeper and more threatening. As Cross slinks into a hunting crouch, she sees who's doing all the yapping.

A long dog of very small stature is being encircled by two much, much larger dogs. The short king is a Dachshund. It seems like he's trying to look tough while being harassed by the two taller bullies. The big dogs are peeved that weenie boy wandered into their territory, and now they're making like they're going to eat him.

Though she's tired enough to sleep for a week straight, Cross's unyeilding sense of justice refuses to let her rest. She leaps towards one of the dogs and cracks him upside the head. She stands over the living hotdog and snarls at the two, telling them to beat it, beat it. But neither of them wants to be defeated, so they ready themselves to fight.

That is, they ready themselves to fight until realizing that Cross is a bedraggled woman. They pause to laugh at the absurdity of what they believe is some homeless chick saving a manlet from assault before Cross sinks her teeth into one's neck and begins shaking.

These dogs are little more then overgrown puppies, maybe 2 years old at most, and though they're nasty little things they're not very good in a fight. "Hey, lady, stop! Let Beth go!" says the one Cross isn't ripping holes in. The dog in her grasp, presumably Beth, begins whining and crying, obviously not used to real fights.

"Okay, okay! We'll go, we'll go! Please stop!" Beth whimpers submissvely. Cross lets him go with a loud grunt and swears at the unruly teenagers as they make a break for it.

Cross pants as she watches them go, and suddenly she's back to feeling weak. The adrenaline has all but left her system and her righteous power has been turned to a mushy lightheaded feeling. She turns to the little dog to see he's smiling gratefully at her.

He thanks her for her help, though he assures her he definitely could've handled the delinquents himself. She smiles back at him. She asks him what he's doing out here and he responds in a way that surprises her.

The Dachshund explains that he's heard about a roaming pack of dogs playing military, running their own corps and organizing men to battle a man-eating bear. He hopes to join those dogs and prove himself just as capable as any warrior, but his training hasn't been going so well.

He sighs dreamily as he imagines aloud how wicked it'd be to be one of the cool kids. All the cool kids, they seem to get it. It being fame and glory, of course.

Cross's smile grows encouragingly as she tells the little dude to keep at it, for he's bound to contribute to a good cause someday if he keeps that attitude up. He thanks her, then tells her that it's time for him to get back to training. Maybe this time he'll stick to killing squirrels instead of chasing down bigger dogs.

She asks him for his name, and he grins a broken smile. Oliver is his name, and he's pleased to make her aquaintence. After Cross shares her own name Oliver enthusiastically lets her know that if there's ever anything he can do to repay her for her good deed, all she needs to do is give a howl.

As Oliver waddles off, Cross's smile quickly fades. She's not feeling too hot. She's been put under an unusually large amount of strain lately and hasn't allowed herself a moment of rest. Something in her stomach cramps up. She's been puking a lot lately and it looks like what little she has in her gut is coming back up. She tosses her cookies all over the forest floor as the lightheadedness comes back.

She tries to stumble away but her head is too foggy. Her legs give out under her and she rolls to her side upon realizing just how long she'd been at sea. She allows her eyes to close as she breathes in deeply. So distracted by her tiredness is she that she doesn't notice when a long, dark shadow falls over her.

Back in Ohu, the boss is facing off with not one but two oversized red-backed bears. The unusually beefy animals don't intimidate the boss, but their origin does cause some concern. These two are beary obviously assassins sent - and fathered - by Akakabuto himself, the types of visitors the Akita has gotten very used to in the past couple of months. Clearly Redhead isn't happy with an especially jacked dog keeping his troops from more human BBQs. Whatever dude, it'll take more then a couple of homicidal teddies to down this masterful bear killer.

Actually, check that: it takes a couple teddies doing something unexpected to down him. The two big-boned barbarians combine their powers to knock a goddamn tree over and roll it the boss's way. Captain Canine is able to dodge the attack, but he can't do so without leaping over a lump of debris that's blocking his path. Turns out that bear ninjas and dog ninjas have something in common, as the poor dog learns first hand that bears understand the concept of pit traps.

There's no skewers this time, but as the leader tumbles into pit the uprooted tree trunk comes rolling in after him. He gasps and tries to get out of its way, but it's too late. The trunk hits the bottom of the pit with a loud WHAM. The sound of splintering wood and a yelping dog meets the twin terrors' ears.

The assassins grin between themselves. Yes. Finally. The Ohu leader has been defeated. The army will soon crumble, and Akakabuto's reign will be unstoppable.

But enough of alla that, I know what you people really came here to see: John yelling at Gin for making a rash decision! Yes, ole Johnny Boy is annoyed that Gin plans on not only finding Benizakura alone, but wants to leave the rest of the troops hanging back while he does so. Like, Gin, dude, you have an army of walking powerhouses and you don't want their backup against The Strongest Dog In The World Trademark All Rights Reserved?? Especially after the bastard hit you in the face twice???

Various dogs begin barking their suggestions. Gin should beat the shit out of the old fart for disrespecting him (so says the Kai Bros), and Benizakura would be outnumbered and thus forced to comply if everyone ganged up on him (so says Bill.) Gin politely speaks up with a deliberate, "Be quiet," which gets everyone to settle down. Akame clears his throat and nods to Gin, clearly having something he's gotta say. Gin bows and gives the Kishu the floor.

Akame explains that given neither Ben or Cross are here, the next commander in line is Gin. He admits that Gin is young and his decisions are brash, but he can't recall any time Gin's pigheaded determination didn't end with the Ohu dogs getting what they wanted. Besides, it's probably for best that the kid doesn't wanna face this with violence. You don't convince people like Benizakura to join you through ass kicking alone, and if there's one thing Gin's proven he can do it's convince people to be cool.

Gin's face is flush with relief as he quietly thanks Akame for his support. Musashi also agrees with the white guy's elaboration. He tries explaining things from a fighting dog's perspective.

If they all go in to kick Benizakura's ass, he'll just fight them off til he can't fight anymore. They'd just be another challenger, nothing more. But no matter how good a dog is at fighting, he's still just a dog. There is always a side to him that's soft and doughy and vulnerable to what he feels is important. Suddenly becoming aware of himself, Moss peers up at the top of his head where a tiny Tesshin is curled in a ball.

Gin allows Musashi to finish what he's saying before going on to explain himself: it's childhood rules, guys. He hit Benizakura once, Benizakura hit him twice. Ergo, Gin gets one free punchy. Smith laughs and elbows Gin in the chest, guffawing about how the baby of the team would find a way to skew such simple, immature logistics to work on a hardass like Benizakura. This plan is crazy... so crazy........ that it just might work!!!

A while later Cross finds herself on the wooden floor of an old barn. She rubs her face to clear her eyes of grit. Once her vision is clear she sees that she's not alone in the room. A dark shadow of what seems to be a massive dog is sitting before her, its eyes shining as they catch the room's sparse light. The stranger asks her in a crumpled, kind voice if she's doing alright.

Cross's brain finally reactivates and she's all like OH SHIT. The dog before her is an aged Tosa mix, his jowls greying and his face smattered with scars. But that's not nearly the worst of it, she realizes, because it turns out she's been chained to the wall.

She scrambles to her feet and demands to know who this random senior citizen is and why she's stuck in her own private Hotel California. Oldie barely reacts. He just gently informs her that his owner is willing to care for her. She'll be safe here.

As Cross pries desperately at the metal stake chaining her up - no dice - the mutt explains that she's lucky to have been rescued. She'd been delirious, mumbling strange things in her sleep about bears and wars. She also mentioned something about Shikoku, which, spoiler alert, is where she is right now.

Cross finally stops fidgeting and lets this sink in. So she made it after all. She's so glad at the prospect of finding the others that she stops struggling and smiles to herself, then to the other dog.

She gingerly thanks him for saving her, like really she's super grateful and all, but would he mind letting her off this chain? She's on a mission. The dog does not offer to set her free, but he doesn't not offer it either. Instead, he just says that she needs more rest.

Besides that, he's become very curious about her circumstances. What in God's name is she doing out here? So gentle is the old dog's gaze that she heaves a sigh, sits on her haunches, and begins describing Akakabuto to him in livid detail. And then she continues to tell him about the boss, and Ben, and Gin, and the sea, and then something much more recent.

Everyone who didn't leave with Gin was just chilling out in the woods one day hunting some food and determining where they'd go next when a scout they'd sent off, a black lab named Kurobe, had returned with some pretty shitty news: all of the platoons sent up north had been killed, wiped out in one fell swoop. Speaking of being wiped out, Kurobe was also bleeding heavily from deep lacerations. She'd collapsed in a heap before Ben before her breathing had ceased. Kurobe had died soon after.

Livid over the gruesome sight, Moss told Ben that it was time to get serious about his fucky eyesight and get to either an optomitrist or a veterinarian in a nearby human village. Ben wanted to argue, but Moss pushed that there wasn't much time left before the final full moon. Something had to be done about the slain soldiers.

Besides, how was Ben to lead his platoon if he couldn't see? Cross had looked at Ben, part of her hoping he'd stay, part of her hoping he'd leave and return with his vision intact. Ben had decided to leave.

Moss and Cross had discussed what to do. They'd want a small base camp for Gin and the others to come back to, but someone would need to head north to sort out the whole mass murder thing. They decided that the dogs should be split between the two platoon commanders available, those being Great and the newly promoted Cross.

Cross had then elected to hang around the dock to regroup with Gin and welcome back Ben when he returned. Better yet, she'd take a day or two to lead Ben to a village herself. Moss had buckled at the suggestion, asking warily if she wouldn't prefer to stay with Ben at the doctor's.

Oblivious, Cross had said that'd be excessive. She could stand on her own four feet without her man, and the hubby would want someone watching over his troops. Then her face fell, her cheeks stinging with embarrassment. She'd noticed Moss looking at her distended belly.

"You should resign when you can," Moss had said sympathetically. "Take it easy til then, but resign when you can. For your family's sake."

And with that he had departed, had followed behind Great as the dane had directed half the dogs away. Cross had stood shaking from both frustration and anguish before Ben trotted up and reminded her that he had a hot date with an eye surgeon. She'd just gritted her teeth, licked his face, and led him through the woods.

The old dog had been listening very intently to Cross this whole time, and even now she could tell he was paying her mind despite his focus being outside the shed. The dog remarks that this has all accumulated in her coming to find some scruffy punk kid with tiger stripes, huh? Well, he doesn't believe in guarantees, but he can promise her that she'll be seeing that kid soon. Cross cocks an eyebrow high enough to count as a Dreamworks audition before realizing what he means.

Not 50 feet from the hut is Gin, his nose to the dirt. Cross notices him as he gets closer. She wants to call out to him, but the old dog cuts her off. He says that he understands why Gin's doing this - he'd done similar rash things when he was young - but he won't be going easy on him. If the kid wants a fight, then a fight is what he'll get.

Cross is concerned about a heavyweight champ punching the shit outta a teenager so she tells the dog to fuck off with that idea. But of course he doesn't. Instead he says that if the Akita wants to die for his cause, then he will.

As Cross struggles to free herself Gin pads lackidasically into view. He calls out to Benizakura and lets the old meathead know he's here for that second hit. Cross gives up trying to loosen her chain and tells Gin to make himself scarce before his head gets lumped in.

Gin's surprised to see her and asks what she's doing here, but she just continues to tell him to get away. By it's too late. The old dog, Benizakura, has climbed onto the roof of the shed, and now he's plummeting down towards Gin. He lands inches in front of Gin. Gin boldly tells Benizakura that he wants him to join the Ohu army. Benizakura's like dude, we've had plenty of exposition for the day. He already knows what Gin's here to do.

That said, The Beast isn't going to abandon his cushy life as a bullbaiter because someone asks him nicely. If Gin wants him as an ally, he'll have to convince him. Gin says he agrees to a fight, but on one condition: if Benizakura pummels him into an early grave, he has to promise to take Gin's place in the army.

Benizakura accepts this offer without hesitation. He shows the exact same amount of hesitation when he grabs Gin by the neck and throws him like a football. This surpises Gin so much that he can't do anything but take the L.

Cross tries to escape the shack by pawing at a wall covered in loose boards, but she can't quite seem to make them break. She looks out at the two brawlers in a panic. Benizakura continues his assault on Gin by headbutting, kicking, biting, and finally throwing him into the side of the hut.

Cross doubles back from the wall as Gin smashes through it, splintered wood flying in all directions. When the dust settles Cross can see that Gin might have met his match. He's bleeding from the face and ribcage, and his eyes are rolling around without focus.

Cross commands Gin as his superior to leave immediately. Dying like a showoff isn't going to help anybody. Gin stubbornly picks himself up, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, while Benizakura looks in through the new window he just installed.

"Get back out here!" the Tosa demands. "You think you're tough? You call yourself a man while you're in there cowering behind a pregnant woman?"

Gin never received a birds and the bees talk during his younger days so it never occured to him that Cross's rapidly growing ponch was the result of her and Ben's alone time instead of her taking seconds during meals. Cross pulls away from him as if ashamed. She says she didn't tell anyone because she was worried they'd think lesser of her for being with child. None of the other chicks in Ohu's ranks have let this happen.

Feeling awkward but sympathetic, Gin tells her that she managed to get here fulla babies so clearly she's not as weak as she's worried everyone would think she is. Before he can further reassure her, though, he remembers what he's here to do.

Gin climbs out of the wall his spine obliterated and tells Benizakura that he refuses to leave until The Beast joins him. As he nears Benizakura, Cross climbs out of the wallhole and chases after him before she's clotheslined by the chain. As Cross flops around in desperate rage, Benizakura takes a moment to look at Gin's bloodied forehead.

One of several massive scars he hadn't noticed before has split open on the kid's forehead. And yet Gin's still here, still standing before a muscleman who has broken dogs' legs like toothpicks. The kid snarls in determination as his forehead blood runs into his face.

Benizakura is distracted for only a moment before snapping out of his stupor and lunging at Gin again, but that pause was all Gin needed to plan his next attack. It should be familiar to Benizakura given he invented it. Making like he's Benizakura and Benny is a bull, Gin snags the Tosa by the flabby skin of his neck and uses his massive weight against him to fling him off his center of gravity.

The two leave the Earth behind for a nanosecond before Gin slams the dog, a monster 3 times his own size, face first into the Earth. Blood gushes from Benizakura's nose as he falls into a heap.

Cross has ceased using her words and is barking like a maniac, but nobody but the three of them is listening. Benizakura wriggles on the ground as Gin looks over his shoulder at Cross. His face says "hell yeah" but then his body goes "oh no" as Benizakura rights himself and slams as hard as he can into Gin's side. The Beast pins Gin to the ground with one massive paw on his neck and the other on his rib cage. Gin squirms violently and Benizakura stands over him panting and swaying. He seems to be... smiling?

Yes indeed, the bull of a dog is smiling ear to ear. And then he begins to laugh. His laugh grows into a bellyfull of guffaws and snorts, his eyes squeezed shut in hysterics. His laugh is as coarse as the rest of his voice, but there's no malice in it. He genuinely sounds like he's heard the funniest joke of his life.

Beizakura sits back on his haunches, still laughing, and allows Gin to get up. Gin doesn't understand if this is an insult or a mental break. Cross is so confused she quits yapping. Benizakura finally stops his chortling and wipes his eyes dry of tears.

The old dog proclaims that this was great. It's been a long time since he'd felt so alive. To think he'd almost forgotten what fighting other dogs was like! He thanks Gin for the fun and says that he'd intitially thought Gin was just some punkass kid who'd grown too big for his britches. But he understands that Gin's got real dedication.

And if he's the youngest in his army's ranks - woof! The other troops must be just as amazing. So sure, he'd be happy to live out his winter years fighting alongside the Ohu dogs. Why not?

Gin's jaw falls open in a dopey looking smile of its own. He's kinda amazed that this whole thing actually worked. While he catches his breath, Benizakura pads over to Cross.

"Benizakura, thank--" she begins, but he politely cuts her off.

"So formal, you people," he says. "Just call me Zak." And with that, he uses his powerful jaws to yank the chain from Cross's collar. The thin but sturdy metal loops snap in half.

The three are just about to head out when the door of the nearby house opens. Everyone stands surprised as the boy who was with Benizakura at the ring steps out with a large bowl of dog kibble. He seems confused and asks his dog Don what's going on. He watches as the Akita and Saluki run away, and then panickedly follows when the Tosa joins them.

"Don!" the child cries out. "Where are you going? Don't leave!"

Gin notices this mildly underwhelming goodbye become a melodramatic one as the boy trips and spills the food he was carrying. Benizakura pauses and looks back for one last time. His gaze meets the boy's, and the child begins to cry tears of confusion and hurt.

Gin's own eyes glaze over as the sight fills him with a sense of familiarity. The child's desperate face reminds him so much of Daisuke's. Is this how Diasuke felt when Gin left? Was it worse given Gin took off without saying goodbye? Gin doesn't know. All he knows is that it hurts to watch the dog give the boy a solemn smile before turning away forever.

Cross lopes up beside Gin and they wait as Zak catches up to them. The boy is still calling out and blubbers desperately. Gin's wet cheeks match Zak's. The old dog isn't so proud that he hides his pain, and he simply chokes out his desire to leave. The others nod and lead him away.

Gin lags a few feet behind as his thoughts jumble with memories of Daisuke. Gin had forgotten how much he missed his boy. He'd forgotten the last time he'd felt like a dog instead of a soldier.

The dogs slow their pace. This allows them some time to share their thoughts with each other. Zak is pretty broken up about leaving his boy. He's not so steadfast in his decision to fly the coop anymore.

Gin pauses thoughtfully before sharing his own experience with the Tosa. Gin had to leave his boy behind when he joined the army too, and it was one of the toughest decisions he'd ever had to make. Even though it hurt him in a way he's never been hurt before, he did it because...

Gin pauses as his eyes well up. The other dogs wait for him to finish his thought. Gin chokes on his words as he says them, but he still manages to spit them out.

"But I had to leave him because I knew it was the only way I could keep him safe. Because if we succeed, he'll never have to face that kind of danger again."

Everyone falls silent. Cross's eyes are wide as she takes in Gin's words, and Zak's face is stony before he nudges Gin's side encouragingly.

"Okay," is all the big guy manages to say. "I understand."

But the waterworks gradually subside and Gin's focus shifts back to the mission at hand. After running for a shorter time then you'd expect, the trio meet up with the Ohu dogs in the area.

Everyone is very impressed to see The Beast in The Flesh. He's impressed by them, too, and he quickly takes on the role of everyone's surrogate grandpa by telling them stories from the good ole days and calling them variations of "whippersnapper." The strongest dog in the world easily finds comraderie among his fellow punchy people. While he worms his way into everyone's hearts, Cross meets up with Musashi, Bill, and their comrades.

This vacay has come to an end, so everyone goes to cross the sea once more. Benizakura chauvinistically offers to help Cross carry her pregnant self across the waves, but she blows a raspberry at him and jumps in before she has to answer any questions about what he old dude said regarding pregnancy.

This will be the last bit of goofing before the journey back because oh my god there's a lot to do when they get to shore. Ben has to be retrieved, John is set to lead some of this gang to find more soldiers, Moss's crew up North needs to be checked on, and, most importantly, everything must be organized before the end of the month. That's when the war will truly begin, and everyone will have to contribute.

----------

AND SO THE SERIES CONTINUES. Just two more episodes after this one, get ready for ‘em. They should both be up before the end of the month. Also keep your eyes peeled for something else, visual stuff this time, that’ll be coming shortly too.

Episode 6: The Battle

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird “Remember Me”

Here is the final part of the Space Angels mini series. Thank you all for reading, and don’t forget to give me your reactions, that’s actually the best part of writing and I appreciate it when I know what you guys think.

If he could just remember how��..

And there it was floating in some unknown part of his psyche, a place where it shouldn’t have been, but it was. He remembered.

He keyed his mike and boosted the signal. He could hear other voices now, the voices of his crew searing for him, trying their best to find him, “Listen to me.” His voice was hard and slurred as his brain struggled to remember how to speak, struggled to find his jumbled thoughts.

“Captain.”

“Captain where are you!”

“We’re coming captain, just hold on.”

Above him, the queen loomed massive and imposing, a destroying angel to what she saw as sin, a blight of lies upon her reckoning. Could he really blame her, their realities were so different, people couldn’t understand things that were different from them. They feared what they did not understand, and then they destroyed it. She was doing what she thought was best, he could feel that.

Didn’t mean he wanted to die this way though.

“I’m sorry.” He slurred into the mike, “Lieutenant, if you’re listening…. The crew is yours. Take them back to earth….. tell me family I love them.” He struggled for more words against his barely functioning consciousness, “Krill, I’m sorry, you were right, and I should have listened. Get yourselves out of here if you can….. I think their brain waves are messing with our radio equipment. Try changing the frequency, and you should be fine.” More tears billowed into his vision, and unable to wipe them away his vision was obscured.

He had been close to death before, but never like this. It was always with someone else. He hadn’t been alone, he had had all of his thoughts, his memories to hold onto, his fiends even though they weren’t there. There were a lot of things he wished he could have done. He wished that he could see his parents one last time, mostly his mother so he could apologize for causing her so much pain. He wished he could have seen her finally get alone with Sunny, to finally drop her grudge. He wish he could have seen his new adopted nephew, David’s son.

He wished he hadn’t been so scared to date, to find someone, to actually tell people what he felt about them. But now he would never have the chance.

He thought about Sunny, would she take over the Drev clan once he was gone. Was she ready to lead? Maybe she would give it over the Cannon.

“Captain, where are you.”

“Captain, just hang tight we’re coming.”

He barely heard them, “Sunny, I’m sorry, Take care of Waffles, she likes you, and she’s going to need someone.” He could feel the things mind encroaching in on him again slowly pouring in to fill all of the gasps in his head, “Sunny, I-“

He felt his consciousness slipping away. He tried to hold onto it to repeat to himself who he was and what he remembered.

“My name is Adam Allen Vir, I’m the Captain of a UNSC ship, my best friends are Sunny and Krill, I have a dog, My mother’s name is Martha I have three, no two, NO four siblings I…. My name is Adam Vir, I’m captain of a space ship, m-my best friends are aliens…. dog, my mother’s name is Martha. My name is Adam, I am…. I fly a Spaceship, I have… friends, and a mother.” His body was growing cold, his voice even more slurred, “My names is…. My-my name….. is…. I…. don’t remember.”

“Help.”

…

He gasped, “My name is Adam.”

The mind began to recede. Something struggled inside his head. A wall of thoughts and memories swirled around his insides like a vortex blocking him from the swelling, crushing power of the outside. His memories came flooding back in their jumbled state of mess, but at least he knew where they were. He could feel his body now could see.

He lifted his eyes as the massive godlike shape recoiled against something mouth opening in an unheard shriek. He struggled to figure out what was going on as the vortex rolled around inside his head. They were memories and thoughts careening in an impenetrable wall. They weren’t his thoughts, they belonged to someone else. He could feel their contents. He could feel emotions of resentment and anger, he could feel feelings of isolation, he could feel the imminent fear of death experienced as they rolled around a star, he could feel the loneliness, the delinquency.

Something slammed into him from the side sending him spinning into the darkness, away from the massive figure even as the wall protected his mind. He turned his head to the side teeth gritted against the G force.

A face stared back at him from the darkness. It was familiar, white with black eyes… It had one hand on the side of his mask and the other on his arm.

“Adam.”

He was flooded with its emotions, the desire of this creature as the queen battered at his mind, and the barrier which this creature had thrown up around him.

“I wish for secrets.” It whispered inside his head. Behind them, other creatures streamed from the darkness chasing after them as the queen floundered in her anger. One snatched at his foot, and he kicked it in the head sending it spinning back into the dark as they entered the dust cloud.

The wall of protection in his mind shriveled, then it shrank downwards. He moaned in pain. He sensed the desperation, the chase, the sheer power that pressed in on them, on all sides.

“Sleep.” The creature said, and he felt the cool tendrils of his mind leaking into his own, but instead of filling the space, crushing him, and stealing his memories, it flowed around them, suspended them, kept them still. It felt…. How he thought cold would feel inside his head. Hs shivered uncontrollably as the tendrils snaked downwards and the power pressed in from above.

“Sleep”

The voice echoed, and then, he was gone.

***

The searchlights spun and weaved across the black sky. He had to be around here, had to be around here somewhere. The light pulled right coming across a body suspended in the darkness, unmoving.

Figures rolled forward search lights bouncing into space, photons spilling into the vacuum. Sunny reached the body first as was her want. He sat suspended hands and legs splayed from its body, hands reaching forward like it had been caught in the act of falling. It wasn’t moving, it wasn’t responding. She took it in her arms, and it slumped against her lit by the bright spotlights behind.

***

The ship floated softly through space towards the Rundi home planet. They had managed to disrupt the signals holding them in place, and left for warp with all due immediacy. The cobalt nebulae had disappeared. into the distance as space folded around it.

Krill floated, dejectedly at the captain’s bedside. The man was perfectly still aside from his breathing. Padded manacles locked his hands and feet into place. A strap crossed his chest, torso, and waist. An IV feeding tube stuck from one arm taped against his pale, unmoving hand. The man’s head lolled to the side.

He had been like that for almost a weak. Thus far, no efforts to wake him up had proved fruitful. The scans indicated that there WAS functional brain activity, but the reticular activating system of his brainstem was showing abnormal functioning. The man appeared to be sleeping in all but the ability to wake up. Sometimes he shifted, sometimes he moved, and sometimes his eyes twitched behind his eyelids, but he ever managed to wake himself.

He had been like that when they recovered him from the darkness of space lying him out on the docking bay floor, and pulling off his suit. He was asleep, but he wouldn’t wake up.

An atmosphere of silence and worry had drawn a dark cloud over the ship and all those who inhabited it. The lights were dimmed, the halls were clear. Voices were held just below normal speaking voices as if afraid any disturbance in the atmosphere might change thing for the worse. Everyone on the ship was horribly aware of how long a human could be in a Coma. Days…. Months.

Years….

What was it going to be?

Krill sighed and sat at the edge. This was his fault, he should have listened to the man. Maybe if he had just compromised, than the captain would still be awake. They could have sent someone with him to help, the marines, the Drev soldiers, anyone.

Sunny stepped in just then silent against her surprising bulk and made her way over, “How is he.”

“Same as before I think he-“

“Feels like his brain got run over by a truck.” The two of them spun suddenly. Sunny nearly tipped herself over. Krill let of a high pitched squealing noise that was particularly unbecoming in the moment. The captain lay on the bed with his eyes half open blinking slowly, “Krill, I’m only going to say this once because I will only manage to say it once without screaming, but let me go before I lose it.” His breathing was slowly beginning to speed up as was his heart, “I, I need to move.”

Krill willingly complied this time, and the captain took a shaky breath lifting his hands to his face clenching and unclenching his fists as if he was worried they just wouldn’t work.

“How do you feel captain?”

“What happened?”

He rubbed his head with the flat of his palm shakily, “You were right Krill.” He took another shaky breath, “They did want to communicate, but once we did, they saw something they didn’t like. I guess since they communicate telepathically, you can’t really hide things form other people. They were so…. Repulsed by the idea of secrets and lies, that they thought it would just be better for me if they…. Killed me off.” He began to shake and tremble uncontrollably, “I…. I couldn’t see, or here, or, or remember anything, It was… black, no not black it was…. N-nothing, there was…. N-nothing.”

Before Krill knew what was going on Sunny had stepped in and was hugging the human to her chest protectively. Krill was about to step in but it seemed as if sunny had made the right move. The human took a few deep breaths and began to calm down. He patted one of Sunny’s arms, “Thanks, Sunny.” He whispered.

***

He stood, uniform on hands behind his back in front of the holo-screen. He didn’t normally look the part, but today he did. In his dark grey uniform, cap and gloves, he stood ramrod straight face serious eyepatch replaced by the fake green eye he had used at the trial not so many months ago. The call came through, and he saluted stiffly as another person appeared on the screen before him.

The admiral took a seat with a sigh.

The captain’s eyes widened in surprise once he realized this was not the face he was used to, “Ca…. Kelly…. Admiral…. Ma’am.”

His old captain looked out at him with tired eyes, the stars on her shoulder glistening in the low lighting, “Captain Vir. It’s a pleasure to see you again. I heard about the trial. I’m glad you managed to shake it.”

He lowered his hand falling into parade rest as he did, “Uh, yes ma’am….. I’m sorry, I hadn’t heard about your promotion.”

She waved a hand, “it was a last minute affair coming on the wings of your recent trial. The accusatory nature of the accusations on one of our best men led to some internal evaluations of our hierarchy. It was determined that a fresh face on command would help clear out the dust, but I digress, you wanted to call about your recent mission report.”

“Yes ma’am.” He lowered his head eyes closing in shame, “I put a lot of people in danger recently, and I. I’m beginning to question my abilities to captain my crew.”

“Really, I looked over the full report, Captain.” He waited, “A man falls wind of an unknown alien source, starts hearing voices, has a theory, acts on that theory and turns out to be wrong.” She steapled her fingers looking at the stoic face through the screen, “Captain, I don’t see that as an accident of command, I see that as an error of being human. Your job is to make contact, and that’s what you did. This time you weren’t so lucky. You pave the way for regulation in the area of alien interaction. You will learn from this, you will write the regulation on contact, and you will begin again, and you will get smarter. You are the youngest captain in the fleet, and YES it shows, but you are also one of the most experienced.” The fond expression she graced him with was not lost on him, “They got into your head, they knew what would bring you out, no one can blame you for falling for the perfect circumstances.”

Hed took a deep breath and nodded, “Yes, admiral.”

“Speaking of which, I had something to talk to you about.”

He lifted his chin and nodded, “Go on.”

The UNSC has recently commissioned 15 new captains and 15 new UNSC ships. They are looking for someone to take the position as acting fleet Commander…. Your name is at the top of that list.”

He stood speechless.

“You are our most experienced man. You know the worlds and their natives better than anyone, and you have a good rapport with them. If anyone has the ability to command a fleet, I think it’s you.”

“But, but, Ca- Admiral, I’m not ready for something like that. You said it yourself, I’m the youngest man, and kind of an idiot. To give me an entire fleet….. well, I’m flattered but, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

The corner of her mouth twitched. “The fact you can acknowledge that you may not be ready, almost certainly proves to me that you are.” She paused glancing down at her desk, and the paper work he could see sitting there, “Think about it at least. The formal call may not come for months now, and I promise, your job won’t change all that much. You will still be the Captain of your ship, you will still be tasked with exploring deep space as you have been, but the others will differ to you in matters of command, they will come at your call, and they will have to check in regularly. You would be authorized to order them in their routs, and help them deal with any conflicts that may arise. In cases of war and conflict, you will be head of an entire fleet, all at your command under the UNSC or the GA…… I think you should take the offer.”

***

He sat with his elbows resting on his knees head down rolling his captain’s cap from one hand to the other.

“Adam, sweetheart, that’s great news.”

“That’s my boy! Conquering the final frontier!” His father called from his chair in the background pumping his fist into the air in one of the greatest shows of emotion the man had ever managed to muster.

He watched as his mother’s smile fell a little, “Adam, what’s wrong?”

He sighed, “I…. well, I recently… messed up, pretty bad, and I don’t think I’m ready for what they want me to do. The admiral thinks I am, but she wasn’t there.”

His dad got up from his spot and walked over sliding himself down next to his wife who sat with worried eyes, “Well, go on boy let’s hear it.

***

His father sat back in his seat contemplatively while his mother looked on in worry.

“Adam, look at me.” He did as his father told, “You are a trusting man, and yeah sometimes you’re going to get duped, and you’re going to get duped hard. That’s the nature of being trusting, but that isn’t a bad thing.” His father jabbed a finger in his direction, “You just need to make sure you have good people around you. Good people who can tell you no, and good people who aren’t so trusting. That surgeon of yours, he seems a bit over the top sometimes, but he was right this time. Listen to him, listen to your officers, and your men, they will help guide you…..”

Vir sighed, “Just wondering when I’ll finally grow up.”

His father left off a snort, “Boy, you’ve fought in war, commanded ships into the final frontier, made friends with your enemies, forgiven those that hurt you; you are more of a man than most men who claim to be. And don’t you damn well lose that trusting streak. Not many people can claim to see the good in others like you do, and sometimes the rest of us need to be reminded.”

“Yes, sir.”

“One last thing, Adam.”

“Yes sir?”

“Take the damn job.”

***

“What did the admiral say?”

“She….. well, you can’t tell anyone because it may not happen, but… she offered me the position of fleet commander.”

Those who heard burst into congratulations and back slapping.  He still wasn’t so sure about this, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He kept a smile on letting them go until he was finally alone. He took a deep breath, and in the dim light of what the crew called the “Aquarium”, he walked over to the skylight, and pressed the button to let down the panel, allowing the ethereal light of space to cat down again him. He leaned his arm against the cool glass and rested his head there taking a deep sigh. At least everything was finally over.

He could rest.

“Adam.”

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 3984 Chapter: 7/? Summary: Not all wars are fought on the battlefield. Some are fought at the conference table, with whispers in the shadows, or even in the bedroom.

In a world where the Senju and Uchiha traditional lands were too far apart to have ever made them enemies, Butsuma and Tajima are the ones who come together and sign a treaty of peace. Madara isn’t happy to have his life signed away for him in a political marriage to strengthen the bond between their clans. He is even less happy to have Tobirama make assumptions of him from their very first night together. What follows from there is a journey of healing, of learning, and finding the places to belong in the places least expected.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Chapter 7

As he had silently promised himself, Madara did think about what Susumu-sensei and Hashirama both said to him. The idea that one had to work to fall in love still baffled him, he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to wrap his head around it, but one thing did stick out for him as only logical. If he wasn’t going to have a chance to achieve the happiness he should have been able to have in life then there was no point in making himself even more miserable than he needed to be. It would be best if he and Tobirama got along, at least.

Where he balked was having to make that first move himself. For all the unfairness he was already suffering he thought in this he should be allowed a bit of selfishness. Tobirama had grown up expecting this sort of misery so obviously he should be the one to make the first effort, not Madara who was still trying to get used to the fact that his life would always be empty of love.

The problem chased him around for several days and kept him just preoccupied enough not to think it was all that weird when he noticed his husband watching him a little too closely during meetings. Generally the two of them avoided looking at each other when at all possible so having Tobirama spend several days eyeing him contemplatively should have awakened suspicion or worry or some kind of self-preservation instinct. Madara’s only excuse was that Tobirama’s gaze seemed to have absolutely no ill intent, no dire under-handed plan with him as the target. All he did was stare with those pretty red eyes that any Uchiha would be jealous of.

Madara was ashamed to say that he didn’t fully register the anomaly until a bigger one came along when Tobirama approached him of his own free will while he was doing nothing more than sitting at the island in their kitchen with a mug of tea. Sudden movement in the corner of one eye sent him leaping right out of his own skin, mug falling on its side and sending tea rushing across the surface.

“Shit,” he growled quietly. “I thought you were gone.”

“Ah.” Tobirama blinked at the tea with the same old dead expression as always. Madara spun to reach for a towel but when he turned back Tobirama had one hand hovering over the spill and lit up with chakra. One twist of his fingers and the liquid followed where he beckoned it like he was some sort of water spirit, back in to the mug that he had already set back to rights.

Rather than thank him Madara grunted and pulled his tea closer to inspect it for any funny business. His husband watched him for a moment before sighing and looking away.

“I need to speak with you about something.” He looked up again at Tobirama’s voice.

“Those proposals I sent in yesterday are no longer up for debate,” Madara ground out, hackles up before anything else had been said. He was all ready to defend the papers he’d spent several weeks redrafting each time Tobirama brought up another point of contention during council meetings – but the subject was waved off with a quick swat of one pale hand.

“Not that.” If Madara didn’t know better he would have said by the shifting of weight and refusal to meet eyes that Tobirama was nervous. “As a…member of the clan I asked around and apparently overseeing the training of the younglings is your purview. Unexpected, I have to admit.”

“Okay…?”

Taking a deep breath and letting it back out in a rush, Tobirama raised his chin to look finally meet Madara’s gaze with an almost defiant expression. “I was going to do this anyway but Hashirama has been badgering me and there really is no point in pissing you off more if it isn’t necessary. I would like your…permission to train Uchiha Kagami. You seem close with the boy so he probably would have said something eventually anyway.”

Shrugging lightly as if to convince himself he didn’t care all that much, Tobirama looked away again, focusing out the window at the trees rustling in the wind. Madara stared.

“You want to train an Uchiha child?” he demanded. Tobirama gave him one sharp nod.

“Training the younglings has always been one of my duties. Or it was until I effectively left the clan. Kagami is…different from the other Uchiha that I have met. Affable.”

“Right.” Drumming his fingers in the island between them, Madara squinted. “There has to be more to it than that.”

He almost had a moment to feel smug for guessing right until the other man’s reluctant response took all the wind out of his sails – out of his lungs as well, leaving him feeling rather like he’d been punched in the gut.

“It was my thought that proving I can care for one of your children would endear me in some slight way to the others so they might not detest me quite so much. Earn their trust, so to speak.” Clearly forcing the words outs had cost him greatly but that was definitely not what Madara focused on. He was more stunned by the words themselves than the effort behind them.

“Wait, you think my clan hates you? All of them?”

To Tobirama’s credit, he refrained from snarkily pointing out that they were technically supposed to be his clan now as well. With a tight jaw and clenched fists he asked, “Don’t they? When I draw near they stop speaking. When I come around the corner they stop laughing, stop smiling. All signs of joy flee at first sight of me. To you they nod and smile and chatter. To me they bow and speak formally and then hurry away as quickly as they can. I think it’s more than clear that I am not welcome anywhere in this clan.”

Blinking slowly, Madara bit the inside of his cheek and wondered if perhaps the two of them were both doomed to misinterpret every social interaction they ever experienced. It would be ironic, if nothing else, for that to be their only commonality.

“My – our people do not hate you.”

“I’m sorry, did you listen to a word I just said?”

“They don’t!” Madara rolled his eyes. “If you had bothered to ask any of them they could have explained that they were trying to make you more comfortable!”

“By alienating me?” Tobirama gave him a dubious look.

Frustrated, Madara curled the fingers he had been drumming. “No! You’re always so…so…formal! Distant! They’re trying to act more appropriately to your station so they don’t insult you with frivolity!”

“Insult me with frivolity? They think I don’t want them to be happy?” By the end of his question Tobirama’s voice had trailed off and Madara was nearly shocked right out of his socks as he realized that his husband was actually saddened by the thought that others might be unhappy because of him. It was oddly human of him.

Slightly uncomfortable with this revelation, he brought his arms close to cross over his chest and muttered, “They’re perfectly happy; just a bit more restrained because they – and I, to be honest – thought you would prefer more formal interactions. They’re showing you respect.”

“I see. I had no idea that was the general opinion of me.”

“Well your general opinion was that they all hated you so it’s not like that’s much worse.”

Tobirama scowled but for once the expression seemed turned inwards at himself. “It baffled me that Kagami could be so different from the rest of his clan, so cheerful when everyone else who spoke to me seemed so insular.”

“Kagami is no different from the rest of us,” Madara snorted. “He’s just too enthusiastic to keep it in his head when his mother tells him to remember his manners.”

“I prefer him the way he is.” Tobirama shrugged.

“Do you?” Humming thoughtfully, Madara realized with no small amount of surprise that it seemed he hadn’t needed to make the first move after all. Susumu-sensei’s words bounced off each other inside his head for the thousandth time, echoed by Hashirama’s voice insisting that his little brother wasn’t actually a closed off robot, that he was somehow worth getting to know. Before he could stop himself Madara allowed his curiosity to get the better of him and asked, “Do you like kids or something?”

He wondered if it was the question itself or just the fact that he had asked it that gave Tobirama such a startled look on his face.

“Yes,” was his simple answer.

“Huh. I wouldn’t have expected that.”

“Why, because I am so cold and formal?” Tobirama ground out and Madara couldn’t really bring himself to be angry about it because yes, that was exactly why.

“It was a misconception,” he admitted instead. “One that you have now cleared up.”

Tobirama watched him carefully for a few moments, probably trying to determine whether or not he was being sincere, then finally nodded to close the subject. “Do I have your permission, then? To train Kagami as my own student? You have my word that he will receive my best efforts.”

For a second Madara hesitated, not sure how to voice his single protest without being insulting. Despite what it might look like to anyone observing them they were actually making more progress with each other in this single conversation than any they’d had before. Not a single intentional insult so far. He would call that progress!

“I can only see one difficulty, being that you are a water natured shinobi. Kagami is fire natured, like almost all Uchiha tend to be, and he will eventually need someone who can teach him the clan jutsu.”

Not looking the slightest put off, Tobirama hummed in thought. “I would ask that you simply teach me the clan jutsu but I’m entirely certain that would be breaking some sort of rule. Are spouses allowed to learn clan jutsu? I suppose if they are it would still require a level of trust which…does not exist here.” The simple hesitation at the end of his sentence was significant in some way, Madara was sure of that, but he would have to mull it over later. Something else required his attention first.

“How on earth would I teach them to you?” he asked. Had he not just said that he knew the man’s nature was water? Yet Tobirama only shrugged and casually rocked his world yet again with a single calmly spoken sentence.

“I can use all five nature releases,” he said, “so it wouldn’t be a problem for me to learn them.”

“You…what?”

Tilting his head, Tobirama drew his brows together in a contemplative frown. “I was given to believe that was fairly common within the Uchiha clan. Your dōjutsu allow you to instantly memorize and copy jutsu of any nature beyond kekkei genkai, correct?”

“Yes but – wait, how did you know that?”

“I…asked?”

Madara blinked. “Asked who? When? And why were you asking about our eyes?” Suspicion reared its head and Tobirama clearly knew the lines he was thinking along because contemplation quickly turned to confused offense.

“As soon as I learned that I was engaged to you I wished to know more. Was that not you who answered my letters?”

“What letters!?”

“I sent dozens of letters when I was told of our engagement! We were going to live together but we’d never met; I wanted to know you, to understand the people that I would be living among. I assumed it was you answering my questions.” He looked uncomfortable with the idea that he had been communicating with some unknown entity.

“No…I had no idea you ever sent anything.”

On his part Madara couldn’t decide which made him more uncomfortable. The fact that someone had been answering his mail without even informing him that it was there or the fact that someone had so easily sent confidential information about their clan’s most prized treasure – their own eyes – out in to the world in letters that could have fallen in to the hands of practically anyone without them even knowing.

He would have to look in to who did something so stupid. Izuna wouldn’t be the one. His brother was even more suspicious and protective of their clan secrets than Madara was. Susumu-sensei certainly knew how to imitate his style of writing but he couldn’t imagine how she would know he was receiving mail or how she would have been in the right place to intercept ‘dozens’ of letters without him noticing. Not to mention that she wouldn’t have any motive that he could think of to do that.

The only other person he could think of was his father but the old coot didn’t strike him as the type either. Unless…

“Were they sealed?” he asked with dread curling in his stomach.

“Yes. Every letter was sealed to open only if I penned the correct kanji on the outside. Why?”

“Mother fucker!” Madara looked around for something to hit but everything in range was breakable. “You were writing to my father. He’s never sent a letter he hasn’t sealed; it’s the only fūinjutsu he knows and he likes to show it off.”

Tobirama thought for a moment. “Your eyes can’t copy fūinjutsu?”

“No, they can’t.”

“Oh. I never thought to ask, I simply assumed. Although I suppose I can understand the logic of it if how your Sharingan works falls in to the theory I was able to cobble together from the sparse information I was allowed to know. Tell me, if you see someone release a jutsu but you don’t see the hand seals they used to activate it then can you still imitate it?”

Blinking even harder now Madara tried to follow yet another jump in topic. He was having a little trouble keeping up, answering out of reflex as he reeled along behind the other man and tried to figure out what they were really talking about. “Ah, no. We need to know how to use the jutsu of course.”

“Yes, of course. Excellent. So I was right then!”

“About what!?”

“That’s why you wouldn’t be able to learn fūinjutsu just by looking at a seal, even if your Sharingan were activated! Because you didn’t get to watch when it was originally laid!”

Madara wanted to respond somehow, never a fan of being left in the dust to feel like he was too stupid to follow a conversation, but he found it quite difficult to think past anything except the brilliant, lopsided grin splitting Tobirama’s face in half quite suddenly. In all the time since they had married he had yet to see the man smile even once. He was a vision. He was also apparently off on an excitable tangent with no intention of slowing down.

“So if you do see someone laying a seal would you be able to memorize it then? Or would fūinjutsu be different because it relies a little more heavily on the environment and the materials used rather than just the base chakra of the one who draws it?”

“I don’t…know.”

“Hmm. Something to test! Excellent! I’ll have to ask Kagami if he might help me record some results, he did express some interest in returning to the lab. Very interesting! I wonder if–”

As though entirely forgetting that they had been in the middle of a conversation, as if everything they had just been talking about was already erased from his mind, Tobirama spun on one heel and walked away muttering under his breath the whole time. Madara stood in the kitchen and watched the man turn left out of the doorway. Then ten seconds later he passed the doorway again in the opposite direction. Had he forgotten where he was going in his distraction?

It took a while for Madara to move again. All he could see in his mind’s eye was the afterimage of that incredible smile. More than human, more than just aesthetically appealing, he had looked happy. Now that was a word Madara had never thought he would ever associate with someone like Tobirama but there was no denying what he had seen. A small part of him wished he had taken the time to activate the Sharingan they had been talking about and demonstrate its memorizing prowess by imprinting that unexpected gift in to his memories forever.

The moment he realized where his thoughts were headed Madara scrambled up out of his seat. He didn’t even want to look at the clock as he snatched up his obi and made himself a little more presentable on the run. With how long they had stood there chatting it would be a miracle if he wasn’t late to work.

Most of the journey across the village passed him by in a blur of distracted thoughts, the majority of them centered around a husband he’d thought he had figured out. Evidently his sensei and Hashirama had both been right to tell him to look deeper. Well, to be fair, Hashirama was the only one who had insisted that there was anything deeper to look for. Susumu-sensei had mostly just told him to get his head out of his own self-centered ass.

Either way he was hardly about to rush off and tell either of them that they had been right. Surely they would figure that out on their own eventually – and then hopefully never bring it up to him again.

Not wanting to be caught showing up late by his father, Madara figured his best bet would be to slip in the window of his own office and threaten Hashirama in to silence about his untimely arrival. It seemed like such a great plan right up until the moment he was sitting astride the window sill with one foot still outside and both of his father’s eyes staring him down from the doorway. He was all too familiar with that fire and brimstone expression and for a single moment he considered spitting at the man’s feet in anger of his own. It was sad the way he was getting used to holding that hot ball of betrayal in his stomach when he met Tajima’s eyes. How dare he answer letters meant for someone else? And how dare he never deign to so much as mention them? He spent enough time reminding Madara how important it was that their marriage stay together, one would think he’d be the first to help them along with that.

But the moment passed and Madara schooled himself in to a carefully blank expression. Nothing good would come of yelling at his father for something that happened months ago and he knew damn well he would never get the apology he wanted. The best thing right now was to redirect the anger he was already being faced with. It was always better to just get the truth over with when Tajima brought out that particular pinched expression. Across the room Hashirama kept his eyes on his own work and tried not to look like he was cowering while Madara brought his second foot in to the office.

“I apologize father,” he mumbled, not actually sorry at all. “I was speaking with Tobirama and we simply lost track of time.”

“Speaking with your husband?” Tajima lifted one eyebrow and Madara hesitated. He would be the first to admit that it sounded unlike him but it was the truth!

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll let it pass this once. Finally a little effort; I would hate to discourage such behavior.” With a warning look that he would not be so lenient if this happened again, Tajima dropped a handful of scrolls in his inbox, demanded they be looked over by the end of the day, and then left.

Madara slumped down in to his chair with legs that felt like jelly. A smiling husband and a lenient father, what other surprises would he have to deal with before noon?

While he tried to convince his heart to stop racing Hashirama was just peeking up from his own space across the room. If he’d been watching for it he would have seen the worrisome grin spreading across his friend’s face, not nearly as attractive as his brother’s and generally the herald to much more chaos. Probably. Madara was actually a little worried about what Tobirama had wandered off to do.

“Sooooo…” Hashirama appeared at his side like a ghost and Madara startled violently for the second time that morning.

“What?”

“You were chatting with your husband were you?” the man grinned at him, leaning down to rest both elbows on the desk so he could drop his head in both palms. “Things are improving then?”

“It was one conversation,” Madara snarled.

He shoved the unwanted elbows off his work surface and reached for the scrolls his father had dropped off for him but Hashirama was far from deterred. A second later it was an unwanted rump planting itself across the spot he was about to fill with parchment and important duties.

“Tell me everything! One conversation can pave the way for many more! You’ve been having such a hard time with all of this, can’t I be happy for you that it looks like things are finally on the up?”

“Would you go away and let me work?”

“Come on! Please? Just tell me what you two were talking about!”

“Ugh!” Madara rubbed and the bridge of his noise impatiently. “He wants to train a student. That’s it. Now will you screw off? You heard my father, I have to get these done by the end of the day and I already had a full plate!” There really was no point in starting a discussion about the whole letter fiasco right now. Maybe his friend would have some insights in to that but that was best left for later; they were supposed to be working right now.

Hashirama didn’t protest when he was pushed off the desk again but he did make soft little cooing noises as though his brother taking on a new student was the cutest thing ever. Which didn’t make a lot of sense. Hadn’t Tobirama mentioned that training the younglings had been one of his duties before their clans moved here and he was married off to someone else? Madara wondered vaguely who had taken up that duty in his absence. Overseeing the new fighters was his own responsibility as well, technically, but he had taken to delegating that task to others since discovering early on that he was a shitty teacher.

Despite his insistence that he had a lot of work to do Madara found it difficult to concentrate with so many new thoughts about Tobirama bouncing off each other inside his head. It had never occurred to him that anyone could misconstrue a bit of polite behavior as hatred but now that it had been pointed out he could see how being treated differently by an entire clan might give that impression. Between that, the shock of having him ask to personally train little Kagami – when had they even met? – and the curious offhand statement about some kind of lab, Madara despaired of the idea that he would be able to accomplish even half of what he needed to get done that day.

For once, however, his thoughts of Tobirama were not filled with anger or grumbling about how much he hated the man. It wasn’t much progress yet but he had to admit that even a small step was big for them. Perhaps it was a little early to say for sure but Hashirama might have actually been correct for once. Things might finally be on their way up.

[beautifulwhensarcastic]

Not sure what exactly can I blame for writing this, but I guess my deeply buried need for twisted AUs occasionally takes over. There are only few people who might take interest in it and that’s okay. I’m mostly considering it to be @sevensneakyfoxes jam, but also maybe @indiefic. 

It’s short. It’s Bucky/Sharon, but not established in any way. Mentioned background Peggy/Steve. Enemies to, well, technically still enemies at this point.

Oh, and it’s a cliché omegaverse... 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

„Leave.” His command comes out soft, but it sends all of the bloodthirsty spectators scrambling away in a hurry.

Sharon's first instinct is to back away. It's rooted deep within her, that pull which responds to the hierarchy bestowed on them by genetics. But she spent enough time hardening her control to fight the urge.

Fists clenching at her sides, she stands her ground. Even as he moves towards and his scent abrades her senses.

For a beta Barnes' power is beyond astonishing. Strong, fast and deadly, possibly more than any enforcer among Northern packs. He commands respect and fear. The fact he's also ruggedly handsome has got him a wide pool of devotees eager to present and bare their throats in submission. Sharon's sure he enjoys the fuck, but from what she knows he hasn't claimed anyone.

„Got yourelf in quite a predicament, sweetheart.” He drawls out, circling her. His scent is the freshest wave she has smelled for the past few days – a sharp, cold shiver thrusting her out of pit of dulled, sweaty human odor she's been hiding in.

„You were too hasty. Have we taught you nothing?” With a tut, Bucky stops in front of her.

Sharon sneers, all semblance of previously shown vulnerability wiped away. „Considering I killed two of yours I'd say the lessons paid off.”

Surprisingly, he grins. It's a flash of charm she witnessed many times, back when she was still safe in Pierce's territory, but there's something dangerous to it. Has it always been with a hint of a threat, Sharon doesn't know; she's never been on the receiving end of it. But it sends a thrill down her spine.

It spreads in a hot wave through her belly and down to her thighs.

She clenches them and pricks her skin with fingernails to cut through that pleasant haze.

„You were good. Not enough, though.” Smile disappears from his face and suddenly he seems much taller, and broader. More scary up close than Sharon remembers. But she's mastered the stoic indifference for half of her life, putting that mask on is a flick of a switch. She doubts it will fool Barnes into believing she's not scared of him for long, but it's all she has for now. Until she gets a moment to think of the best way out of here.

She's not naive to think she can make it out all alone. However, if she manages to break outside at least the rescue party could meet her halfway.

That there will be someone coming for her she's certain of.

Bucky expects it too, she thinks.

He wouldn't hold her in his own quarters otherwise. She'd be either locked up in one of the cells, or dragged straight in front of Pierce. Keeping her as bait right where he can watch her himself, Barnes makes an obvious statement he's out for those who come to her aid. Then again, it seems too predictable. Very unlike him.

„You shouldn't have been out there on your own.” Bucky frowns at her. It reminds Sharon of Steve's disapproving glare. His words, however, sound more like Peggy's. She wouldn't be mad Sharon was scouting, only that she went without backup.  

„Because an omega needs protection from the big, bad world?” Sharon snorts.

He advances so fast Sharon has no time to brace herself. Instead she backs away. Step for step Barnes follows until her back hits the wall and he has her trapped. She swings at him. With the cutest, feral sound he's ever heard.

Bucky catches her hand with ease, wrapping his fingers tightly around her wrist. He leans forward, holding himself back from fully pressing into her body. Sharon barely refrains from turning her head to the side when he puts his free hand on the wall beside it. 

„Your designation has little to do with it.” Bucky nuzzles the hollow beneath her ear. „Though you do smell tempting,” he adds with a purr.

He pulls back enough to catch her gaze. „You're a Carter.”

The bounty for Sharon's head is impressive, but it's merely a chunk of what's offered for Peggy. Or for Rogers. Though she's sure Pierce wants to hold onto any omega of a Carter's royal bloodline, having her is a means to get his paws on the one who truly undermined his power.

„Then you know we rarely do what we're told!” With a snarl, she knees him in the groin then decks him with a solid right hook that has Barnes stumbling back two steps.

There's blood on his bottom lip. Slowly, he wipes it with the tips of his fingers. He doesn't lunge after her, much to his inner wolf's dismay. Everything inside him strains, screams to fight and chase.

Sharon's smart enough not to run. If she made a move for it, Bucky wouldn't be able to control the wolf. The outcome could literally bite them.

Taught to use opponent's distraction, Sharon attacks again. She's no match for him in an even fight, but with a few dirty tricks up her sleeve she can damage his pretty face and disable him for a moment long enough to give herself a head start.

But she's never even sparred with Bucky. He's nearly as fast as Steve. And more of a boulder than the alpha – most of her punches bounce off of him. Sharon manages to scratch his pretty face, a minor gash that will heal within minutes.

When she throws a kick at him, however, he catches her knee over his elbow. With a swing of his leg he knocks her off balance and brings her down on the floor.

Barnes wraps a hand around Sharon's throat, clenching it enough to make her freeze.

She's reasonable, Sharon tells herself. It has to be the threat of death that has her yielding, not the surge of heat the weight of Barnes' body on top of her suddenly causes.

A Carter's mind is a sharp weapon, but her body is still ruled by the wolf. And the bitch is fucking delighted with the press of a dominant wolf between her splayed thighs.

Sharon wonders if this is what Peggy meant when she said she was unable to not respond to Steve despite being the most resilient omega. As the firstborn and an omega of the Carter clan, Peggy's future was decided. She'd mate with the pack's alpha (and possibly murder him after at some point, because everyone knew how much Peggy hated Pierce's son and future alpha, Jack). No one expected a very pragmatic, dutiful Peggy to fall for an orphaned, low in hierarchy beta.

Maybe it wouldn't happen if Steve remained a weakling beta the pack took him for. But the scrawny boy started filling out more than just in muscles, his power grew rapidly. Sharon never paid much attention to his scent back then, but the fact Peggy couldn't stay away from him was enough indication of his alpha potential. Then Peggy's heat came and everything got fucked.

Sharon's heat isn't due for another month or two, yet her body warms up beneath Bucky. Only her face remains hardened, grey eyes flashing anger.

„Easy now,” Bucky says softly. He's inches above her, tips of his hair tickle Sharon's cheek.  

„Let go of me!” She hisses, trying to twist away.

To Sharon's surprise, Barnes moves off of her. Swiftly, he picks her up and stands her on her feet. He grabs a fistful of her hair, yanking her head back enough to bare her throat. „Behave,” he growls. „If you cause ruckus the word of your capture will reach Pierce sooner than I'd like.”

He lets go of her and steps away. Sharon eyes him warily as he moves across the room. Barnes is Pierce's enforcer, a beast on a leash. Keeping secrets from his alpha, especially secrets of this calibre, is more than suspicious. It's also hard to do within a pack. She assumes Barnes' poeple who brought her here won't peep a word about her whereabouts without his explicit permission, scared of him more then of their alpha.

She realizes Barnes finds her useful. Giving her to Pierce would serve nothing but to placate the alpha, pointless if looked at from a wider perspective.

„I won't tell you where they are.” Sharon crosses her arms over her chest.

„I know.” Bucky nods, sliding behind a desk. He sits down in a chair and opens a sleek, black laptop. „I have no need for it. A true alpha doesn't leave his pack members behind.”

He's sure they will come for her. Sharon considers arguing, but Barnes is too smart to believe any of the lies she tells him about Steve Rogers. He also knows Steve too well to doubt he'll come for Sharon.

Not only is she his mate's sister, but – like Barnes said – she's Rogers' pack now. Steve's too protective to fight down the urge to save his people. Too true of an alpha. Something Pierce and his kin had killed inside of them long ago. Sharon's not sure Pierce would risk his life for anyone, even his own son.

„A pack member is ready to lay their life for the alpha.” Bucky slowly looks up at Sharon's words. Her promise isn't fervent. It's a vow which he can respect.

„Until that moment arrives, no harm will come your way.” He replies. It strokes a string inside her, a pleasant hum spreading to the very tips of Sharon's fingers.

She hopes Steve kills Barnes, for she fears what could become of her otherwise.

[nitewrighter]

Dragonback Pt. 2

Dragonback Part 1

The quest to get Rei’s dragon back (Finally!) continues! Now with lots of Shimada Lore Dumping!!!

---

A draft blew into the hangar of the Talon Croatia base. Reaper watched as a small crew readied the Vaquita, Talon’s small, long-range stealth flight unit. The hems of Reaper’s long coat rippled in the breeze. He glanced over at Andrea-- she was just as tall as Maximilien, and even bulkier than him between her SEP serum, tactical gear, and Maximilien’s own sleek suit. He didn’t want to think about how old she was, how old she was really. Moira said the artificial aging process within the amnio tube still took several years, and was slowed even then by the brainwashing process, and she was aged up even older than Aedan. It made his gut wrench. A strike team of four was checking their weapons before heading into the Vaquita themselves, their heads and identies all completely concealed by Talon helmets. Pretty standard six person mission. 

“I hope you understand this tracker represents no small investment of time and money,” said Maximilien as Andrea turned the tracker over in her hands.

“So if I’m not her controller on this mission...” said Reaper, putting a hand on his hip, “Who is?”

“That would be me,” a French-accented voice spoke behind him and Reaper turned around to see a pale girl with champagne blonde bobbed hair donning what appeared to be a Talon tac-gear variation on a chauffeur’s uniform. Her temples were pocked with neuroprosthetics.

“Oh... you,” said Reaper, maybe 75% remembering her, “...Fossie?”

“Faustine,” Faustine and Maximilien said at the same time, 

“You’re sending your daughter to watch my daughter,” said Reaper flatly.

“I’m sending my protégé to watch your clone, yes,” said Maximilien. He gave a slight pat to Reaper’s shoulder, “Knight and Bishop. Just like us, eh?”

“I don’t play chess,” said Reaper, folding his arms. 

“I could give you a few lessons sometime,” said Faustine with a smile, tugging at her black driving gloves and smiling, she gave a glance over to Andrea, “Knight and Bishop are very effective in the endgame, especially for taking a King.”

Reaper scoffed, “I know enough about chess to know that kid is not a King,” he muttered.

“Certainly not,” said Faustine, “Just a pawn who has no business being on that side of the board.”

Reaper just grunted.

The nanite tracker in Andrea’s hands started beeping suddenly. Andrea turned it on and it projected a small hologram of a globe, with a little red dot blinking in northern Japan.

“Speaking of no business on that side of the board...” said Maximilien, “You have a long flight ahead of you.”

“And you have much work as well. Au revoir, Papa, we’ll see you when the mission’s over,” Faustine kissed Maximilien on the cheek and Maximilien gave Faustine an affectionate touch under the chin. Andrea looked at Reaper, stood at attention and saluted before boarding the Vaquita.

---

Shirakami-Sanchi forest was quiet. Then again, growing up between Oasis and lab facilities with heavy amounts of  internal security that would fence him out of whole sections, Aedan decided he probably had not walked in enough forests to determine what was a ‘quiet’ forest. There was sound--the wind rifling through leaves, the odd bird call cutting through the air---but there was an eerie tranquility to this place… or it was probably just eerie to him. He watched the Shimadas as they easily walked through the forest paths. Despite a red-eye flight on a drop ship, they kept a pretty mean hiking pace. 

Aedan was the outsider here, as always. If Angela were here, maybe there might be someone to share in the alienation of being a scientific mind on what could only be assumed as a spiritual mission—Mercy hated his guts, he was aware of that much, but it would have seemed less isolating, at least. Aedan watched Rei, easily ambling after her father and uncle as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest. Despite Rei’s teasing, his time on missions with Overwatch and environmental research trips with Mei had made him a bit hardier in the wilderness. 

“So…” Aedan broke the silence with a human voice, “You all… come here often?”

“That is not your concern,” Hanzo said crisply.

“Uncle used to bring me here for ninja training when I was younger,” said Rei, smiling.

“Rei,” Hanzo said her name in warning.

“What?” said Rei, “We can trust him.”

Aedan reddened a little.

“I mean, this isn’t exactly Overwatch-breaking information, anyway,” Rei added, “It was fun! I wore this big, dorky ankle weights and I’d have to chase after him along all these paths and jumping from tree to tree…”

Hanzo huffed.

“I think most of our tree markers from that time are still here,” Genji said, his eyes scanning the light filtering through the leaves above. He sighed a little wistfully, “You were so little, then.”

“Dad—“ Rei started with an eye-roll.

“You tried so hard,” Genji’s fingertips were pressing along his faceplate.

“Dad,” Rei’s voice was harsh with exasperation. She looked back at Aedan, beet red. Aedan kind of liked the mental image of a smaller version of Rei jumping from tree limb to tree limb. It seemed like her, anyway.

“Our father trained us in this forest too,” said Hanzo.

“If by ‘training’ you mean, ‘Left us alone for 5 days in the wilderness,’” said Genji, “Which, it turns out, is not a normal parenting thing.”

“According to Angela,” said Hanzo.

“According to most of the Watchpoint,” said Genji.

“Which, as we have discussed, are not a good model on which to determine what is ‘normal,’” said Hanzo.

Aedan gave a glance over to Rei, who was furrowing her brow as her father and uncle bickered. Aedan only shrugged at her. The term ‘normal parenting thing’ gave him some pause—after all, he had known from his very inception that his existence would not be a normal one—exactly how abnormal it would be he wouldn’t find out until later, but Talon had raised its children with the idea that Talon would change the world, that they would live in Talon’s world—Overwatch, well it wanted to make the world a better place, certainly, but it wasn’t the same vein as Talon. It wasn’t willing to burn down everything to start from scratch. It raised its children to adapt to and understand the world around them as it was. He sort of envied them for that. He, or Rei, or Samir or anyone could raise a question regarding the morality and legality of their actions and it would be considered just as seriously as if they were a senior member like Jack or Ana or McCree. Overwatch was an organization that was constantly facing the mistakes of its past… while Talon’s morality was malleable enough so they didn’t really have to grow, and thus, didn’t.

“So this forest has… a lot of meaning to the Shimada family, I take it?” said Aedan, looking at Rei’s pained expression and hoping he might take the focus of the conversation off of her and the proper means of raising her.

Both Genji and Hanzo looked over their shoulders at him and he suddenly felt very small.

“You… could say that,” said Hanzo slowly.

“Uncle, it’s where the clan got the dragons,” said Rei.

“He does not have a right to that information!” Hanzo snapped.

“Well he’s here, so he should know,” said Rei.

“He is merely a medic whose standing within Overwatch is probationary at best!” said Hanzo.

“Well… I told Angela in the early months of the Recall,” Genji said quietly.

Aedan could feel his own face burning at this point. He wasn’t sure how comfortable he was having his relationship with Rei compared to that of Rei’s parents.

Hanzo, apparently thinking the same, looked sharply to Genji. Aedan looked to Rei, who was still hiking along, but with her face buried in her hands at that point.

“The relationship is not comparable,” Hanzo said flatly. Everyone avoided eye-contact with each other for nearly half a mile after that.

“So!” Aedan managed to blurt out after the insufferable silence, looking at Rei, “How the clan got the dragons, huh?”

“Which is a story reserved for those within the clan,” said Hanzo, tensely.

“I told Angela,” said Genji.

“Well as I’ve said earlier, you’re married and the relationship is not comparable—“

“And McCree,” said Genji.

Hanzo closed his eyes and inhaled slowly and deeply through his nose before exhaling through his mouth. He opened his mouth to retort to Genji but was cut off as Rei cut in.

“And… maybe people outside of the clan should know the story?” said Rei, “I mean… you both put so much effort into collapsing it…”

“Moira was trying to understand the origin and purpose of the Shimada dragons for years,” said Genji, quietly, “If we were telling Jack or Ana or Pharah, I’m sure the story would be yielded more freely but…”

Aedan’s stomach knotted. Usually any mention of Moira tended to shut down any discussion of anything near him. As far as Overwatch knew, he could still be her Trojan horse.

“Well I’ll give him the abridged version,” said Rei, putting her hands on her hips and slowing her pace slightly so Aedan could walk alongside her.

“What?” said Aedan.

“What?” said Hanzo.

“So, the whole dragon thing started back with this lady in the Heian period, Reiko Shimada,” said Rei.

“Rei…ko?” said Aedan.

“Yeah, Dad named me after her. ‘New start’ and all that. But anyway she was like… super pregnant during this hardcore siege on her family’s castle--”

“‘Like super pregnant?’” Hanzo repeated Rei’s words, arching an eyebrow, “The story is well over a thousand years old. I think you owe your namesake a bit better than ‘like super pregnant.’”

“Fine, heavy with child,’” Rei imitated Hanzo’s dramatic timbre, “Anyway, during the battle, her Lord husband got killed, and she gave birth the night her family’s enemies finally broke through their defenses, and she named her baby boy Hikaru Shimada. And then her most loyal servant put both her and her newborn into a wheelbarrow and wheeled them as far away as he could from their burning castle until he got an arrow in the neck and she had to continue on foot. And she managed to make it to this forest. And she and her newborn son survived for 5 days here before her baby got this fever, and she thought she was going to lose him, but then she found the shrine of moonlight.”

“The shrine of moonlight?” Aedan arched an eyebrow.

“It sounds better in Japanese,” Hanzo said tersely.

“But the Shrine of Moonlight is where the dragons descended on her all like, ‘I shall protect you and all your bloodline for as long as a Shimada child lives!’ And baby Hikaru miraculously got better, and I guess all Shimada have dragons now…” Rei trailed off, “Except… y’know…”

“Except we’ll find the shrine and get your dragon back from it,” said Genji, slowing enough for her to walk up and meet him, where he tucked her hair back slightly. He had his visor on. Aedan wondered if Genji would still have his visor on if he wasn’t there. It became very clear to Aedan that this was a family affair, that if Mercy wasn’t busy patching Jack together from his latest foray in a battle he was far too old for, that she would be here, not him. Rei’s mother should be here, not him. She rescued Rei from Urdr, not him. Maybe if Mercy had resurrected Rei and not him, maybe Rei would still... Aedan felt his pace slowing, the Shimadas easily maintaining their hike ahead of him. Aedan tried to clear his thoughts. No, he was a medic. He had a place on this mission. He had to see this through, too.

Rei’s voice suddenly cut through his melancholy. “Wait--’Find?’” she said, “’Find’ as in, you don’t already know where it is?”

“Well Hanzo found it before,” said Genji but Hanzo glanced off.

“Uncle...?” said Rei.

“Well... it was more like it found me,” said Hanzo.

“Oh scheisse,” Rei muttered under her breath, “The storm arrow story.”

“Rei, I wouldn’t bring you out here if I didn’t believe there was something in these woods that can help you,” said Hanzo.

“You were bleeding out and delirious!” said Rei, “You said yourself you don’t know if you dreamed it!”

“Wait-wait--back up--Storm arrow story?” said Aedan.

Hanzo and Genji exchanged glances. Genji looked expectantly at Hanzo. Hanzo scoffed. 

“Fine,” he said, “So long as we’re spilling all of our family’s secrets to an ex-Talon clone of a mad scientist--A few years before Rei was born, I was dependent on a weapons supplier for a unique arrow called the scatter arrow. Our meeting point was at the border of this forest. Unfortunately while I was resupplying myself with his product, I learned the hard way that he had sold me out to my family. I was unprepared, and set upon by several assassins. I managed to dispatch them as well as my traitorous supplier, but in doing so, destroyed the resource for my most powerful weapon aside from the dragon. I stumbled through the woods, losing track of time and space--” 

“And you were bleeding out,” said Rei.

“And I was bleeding out,” Hanzo conceded, “I tried to clean out and patch up the worst of my injuries at the river but... ended up passing out into it.”

“If you sit by the river long enough...” Genji quipped but Hanzo rolled his eyes.

“I remember a blue light and a distant voice--I remember the feeling of the dragon dragging my mind back to consciousness...” said Hanzo, “When I came to, I had washed to a riverbank, and all my injuries were healed.” He extended his arm and the blue light of his dragon spiraled around it, “And in that moment I knew, something had awakened in my dragon as well. It felt... brighter, stronger...more present in me than ever before,” he looked back at Rei, “There is something in this forest Rei. Something connected to the dragon. I would not be here otherwise.” 

“So the dragon saved you,” said Rei, furrowing her brows.

“The dragon is dependent on me, Rei, there had to be something else.”

“Or someone else! What if a hiker just found you and happened to have a biotic cannister on them and they healed you and just... left?”

“A hiker? In the middle of the night? Leaving me in a river where I could still get hypothermia?” said Hanzo, “Seems unusual for someone trying to save someone...”

“Well... you are kind of heavy,” said Genji, but Hanzo gave him a sharp look and Genji cleared his throat.

“It was the shrine,” said Hanzo, stopping and looking at Rei, “I know it was.”

Rei pursed her lips, “We’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel for getting the dragon back, aren’t we?” she said quietly.

“Rei--” Genji moved to put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off and picked up her pace.

“Rei...” Hanzo started after her.

“You said you found it when you fell in a river, right?” said Rei, her voice bitter, “We’d better start walking if we’re going to find it. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get a head injury on the way and we’ll definitely find it!”

Hanzo sighed and rubbed his forehead, Genji paused, unable decide whether to catch up with her or give her her space. Aedan did decide. Despite having longer legs than her, he still had to practically jog to catch up with her, far enough away from Genji and Hanzo to be out of earshot, but close enough so that even in the brush and trees, there was still a faint visual.

“Rei--” he spoke after her.

“Don’t,” said Rei.

“I know it doesn’t look certain--”

“You said we’d get it this time!” Rei whirled on her feet at him.

“...I said this time would be different,” said Aedan, glancing off.

Something wet glistened in Rei’s eyes for a second but she bit the inside of her lip and turned away from him. “But you didn’t know,” she said “You don’t know.” 

“I don’t,” Aedan admitted, “But... I believe it’s different this time.”

Rei’s face dropped. “Believe? Aedan--you’re always going off about science and empiricism and all that stuff. You’re not a ‘believe’ person.”

“And you’re someone whose family has this thousand year old legacy of pulling magical dragons out of thin air! And--look--back at Urdr--I didn’t know I could do what I did. I didn’t know. And look, my Mum, she probably analyzed as much of your dad’s DNA as she could get her mangled hands on, and she still couldn’t figure out where the dragon came from--How it worked. For me, Fading is like flexing a muscle that... that isn’t there. And bringing someone back that was... It was something inside me--something that was always there that I just had to figure out how to call. And I think the dragon is something similar for you. There’s another element at work here that none of us could understand... not yet... and I think that requires heading off into the unknown for that.”

Rei was silent, staring at him, eyes wet and shining. Aedan hesitantly reached forward and grabbed her hand. “You’re right. I’m not a ‘believe’ person. But I believe in you.” 

Rei looked down at his hand clasped around hers, and then back up to his eyes. Heterochromatic, earnest, searching, always a little anxious. Aedan felt her fingers squeeze around his.

“Aedan--” she started but was interrupted by Hanzo pushing through the brush behind them.

“Rei,” he was saying, “I know the situation seems--Oh--I’m sorry I didn’t mean to--”

Rei’s hand jerked from Aedan’s in a second.

“It’s--it’s nothing,” she stammered, “It’s fine. I’m fine now.” 

“Oh... Well... good,” said Hanzo as Genji pushed through the brush after him.

“Ready to keep going?” Rei forced a smile.

“You were painfully accurate earlier,” said Hanzo, “As you said, we do believe our best bet is looking for a river or similar body of water.”

“Well, I guess we should find it then, shouldn’t we?” said Rei.

Hanzo and Genji gave a nod and the four continued on their way.

Rei looked over her shoulder and mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Aedan, and Aedan gave a small thumbs-up to her.

“What did you say to her?” Genji’s voice was barely audible, even to Aedan, but Aedan just awkwardly shrugged.

“Y’know I... let her know I have a good feeling about this,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

---

“Arriving in Tōhoku airspace now,” the Talon pilot said as the Vaquita glided over the ocean.

“Excellent,” said Faustine, sitting primly in the co-pilot’s seat. She extended a hand to Andrea. “If you will,” she said.

Andrea handed over the nanite tracker. Faustine peeled off both of her driving gloves, revealing the mosaics of neuroprosthetics on the backs of her hands. Faustine extended the fingers of her right hand toward the tracker while extending her left hand toward the Vaquita’s GPS on the dash. Andrea tilted her head with some curiousity as vein-like wires slid out from beneath Faustine’s fingernails and threaded themselves over the tracker, and likewise wires from her left hand stretched taut into the dash.

“Triangulating new coordinates,” said the Vaquita’s AI as the pilot tilted the ship slightly.

“You know you could just plug it in,” said the pilot.

“Well, as Maximilien said, it’s a highly delicate and expensively produced piece of machinery,” said Faustine, “Should there be any fluctuations on the vaquita, I can insulate it from the surge.”  Faustine’s eyelids fluttered slightly as she looked at the GPS, “Shirakami-Sanchi?” she arched an eyebrow, “You hardly struck me as the outdoorsman, Aedan.”

“Do those hurt?” asked Andrea, watching as Faustine inhaled and wires extending from her fingertips seemed to twitch like veins.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” said Faustine, “Nervous disorder when I was little--you know, pain is in the mind. And the nerves. And sometimes it’s not real. But thank you for your concern.”

“I was only asking in case such modifications might make me more useful to Talon,” said Andrea, “If the pain distracts from my missions, such modifications are best specialized to you.”

Faustine smiled. “Oh they are definitely best specialized to me,” she said, “Knight,” she motioned with her head toward Andrea, “And Bishop,” she nodded for herself, “We all have our parts to play.”

“Hm,” Andrea gave a nod.

“New Coordinates found,” the Vaquita’s AI spoke up again, “Adjusting course.”

“I have a good feeling about this,” said Faustine.

[inuyashaographer]

Manga vs. Anime - Inuyasha Edition #06 - Lord Frog

This edition covers Episode #8: “The Toad that Would Be Prince“ of the anime and Chapter #19: “The Dark Castle”. Chapter #20" “Tsukumo no Gama”. Chapter #21: “Inheritance of Souls”, Chapter #22: “Plea for Mercy” of the manga.

<><><><><>Summary <><><><><>

Three days have passed and Kagome and Inuyasha are now looking for information concerning the jewel shards. Kagome is taking a bath in one of the springs while Inuyasha questions a few demons at this moment.

CHANGED: Instead in the anime,  Inuyasha is not far away up in a tree talking with Myoga, talking about Kagome, who Myoga cannot help but look at, before he moves down to get a closer look. Before a monkey zooms past Inuyasha, with Inuyasha following after it, they both run by Myoga, however Myoga only sees Inuyasha and cannot help but comment on how Inuyasha “couldn’t resist” either.

Upon his arrival back to Kagome, Kagome screams. Inuyasha believes that it’s because of him, however he soon realizes that she is screaming because a monkey has just made off with her clothing. They give chase coming across a young wanderer. A brief altercation takes place with the wanderer lifting his sword, but Inuyasha quickly puts a stop to it.

Sometime later, the wanderer is eating some chips as Kagome offers him tea, she offers some to Inuyasha, who refuses, the conversation soon enough leads to Inuyasha questioning why she brings so much with her when she comes through the well, before Kagome has a chance to respond the wanderer comments on the chips and thanks Kagome for sharing before they introduce themselves. Much to Kagome’s surprises, the wanderer is apart of the Nobunaga clan, who shakes his hand happy to meet him, much to Inuyasha’s confusion. When asked what was going on, Kagome pulls out one of her books and reads a passage from the book about Oda Nobunaga (much to the comical wonder of Inuyasha who doesn’t have any idea of what a book is), however she eventually finds out that this isn’t the Nobunaga that she believes it it.

CHANGED: The anime changes this, actually having Kagome ask for his autograph…  Kagome in the anime gets mad at him when she finds out that he isn’t Oda. This scene is odd because in the anime they add in dialogue from Nobunaga, in which he claims that he cannot reveal his name... however he's more than happy to sign down his name. This might be just the fact that as we learn Nobunaga... isn't the brightest, and simply finds the idea of a girl asking for his autograph too appealing to pass up.

He thanks her for the food before telling her that he comes from Takeda, mocking Oda who is from Owari. He turns around stating he has an important mission to complete before taking a tumble down the small cliff side just in front of him.

They follow after him, as they take note of the woman that have been captured and are now heading toward the castle lord, Inuyasha can’t help but question why they are still with him, only for Kagome to return a question if they really should leave him alone. Rumors of a possession of the lord of the castle catch their interest and later that evening they make there way toward the castle. Inuyasha quickly notes the smell of demon within there, certain a jewel shard is likely involved. He kneels down telling Kagome to get on his back, but is visibly angered when Nobunaga climbs on as well. Nobunaga tells him that he has business in the castle as well, before Inuyasha leaps over the wall, landing inside.

CHANGED: Just a bit more added dialogue as Nobunaga and Inuyasha argue, a bit more convincing is needed by Kagome as well.

Myoga makes himself known telling Inuyasha to keep a careful eye on the place, as they all begin to wonder why a castle so big wouldn’t have guards watching. Kagome and Inuyasha walk up to one of the guards who is asleep. Myoga notes that there must have been a spell placed onto them and everyone else in the castle.

Nobunaga runs through the castle trying to find the princess that he is looking for. Kagome questions Inuyasha if he should be yelling like that in enemy territory, but Inuyasha assures her that it should be fine with everyone asleep, and more importantly, it would be perfect for luring the demon out. Running into one of the rooms, Nobunaga lifts up an elderly sleeping woman who he believes to be the princess, Kagome however turns his attention over to the real princess, who Myoga then proceeds to wake up by sucking her blood.

Kagome and Inuyasha watch on as Nobunaga and the princess talk about their previous life before the events that took place at the castle. Kagome is quick to pick up on Nobunaga’s love for the princess, which Inuyasha calls stupid. Nobunaga tries to convince the princess to leave the castle with him as Inuyasha stands, telling them to leave because him and Kagome have the demon in the castle to handle. Nobunaga and the princess attempt to leave the room however opening the door just as the lord makes his way through the hallway, he quickly tries for an attack on Inuyasha who is able to dodge it and claw for the bandages around his face, tearing them, and revealing the lords face to be that of a frogs. The princess faints upon this revelation. Kagome takes note of the jewel shard that the lord is carrying as Inuyasha readies himself to attack. Myoga attempts to warn him, telling him this fight won’t be able to be won by normal means. Inuyasha attempts to swing, only for the frog to spew miasma which covers the room, sending Inuyasha backwards and grasping onto his throat.

The lord turns his attention to the princess, who Nobunaga attempts to protect only for the lords long tongue to stab through his shoulder. The lord picks up the princess and quickly runs off while Kagome runs over to Nobunaga telling him to stop moving because of his injuries, he refuses, reaffirming Kagome’s thinking that he loved the princess. Nobunaga is shocked that Kagome knows about this, though Kagome is confused about his response considering how little he attempted to hide it. Inuyasha walks up behind them, now visibly angry that the frog got the better of him and now intent on killing him.

They give chase crashing through the room just as the lord traps the princess into one of the orbs. Myoga explains that the orbs are used to keep the girls souls until they ripen enough for them to be eaten. Nobunaga realizing the intent to eat the princess and tries to attack, only for the lord to release another stream of miasma. Inuyasha at this point in time is tired of waiting and chooses to get involved pushing Nobunaga aside and landing a blow against the lords shoulder. Myoga seems surprised that Inuyasha is using the Tessaiga so well, however Kagome reminds him that Inuyasha is helping humans in this situation which makes his control over the sword that much better.

The lord pulls in souls of the girls around, to heal his wounds returning to his original state while Nobunaga is able to pull the princess out from her orbs, the lord tries to interfere but is quickly put down with a hard hit from the blunt side of Inuyasha’s Tessaiga. The hit to the head sends him falling onto the ground as the real lord begins to speak, realizing what he has done. Kagome takes note of this realizing that the lord is still there before the lord request that he be killed for his actions and possible future actions because of his possession. Inuyasha seems fine with this fact intent on killing him, Nobunaga questions what will happen to the lord, leading to Kagome to question Inuyasha about this as well, knowing that the lords human heart is still there. Myoga tries to state that even that would at some point be consumed to which Kagome again argues, only for Inuyasha to claim his intent to kill the lord upon the lords request. He raises his sword and swings down but ‘misses’, eventually turning around and walking off, playing off his actions by stating it would be too easy to just execute him.

CHANGED: The anime does this differently, Myoga never interferes leading Kagome to argue the case for the real lord, Inuyasha in the anime still isn’t receptive and it takes interference from Nobunaga to change his mind, this scene was taken from a later scene in the manga, with the episode following up from that scene forward.

Kagome however sees right through this, knowing that Inuyasha couldn’t do it, knowing there was still human left inside of the lords heart. Inuyasha turns his attention to Kagome, outright stating that it was her that stopped him from killing the lord, before asking her what they should do to take care of him.

At this point, the demon has taken control over the lord once more and attacks Inuyasha while his back is turned. Inuyasha falls to the ground leaving Kagome to deal with the demon who has now turned his attention to her. Myoga tells Kagome that he has a hunch on how to save the lord and get rid of the demon, despite this hunch, Kagome is willing to try her luck to put an end to things.

CHANGED: The anime Myoga isn’t running on a hunch, but speaks about the situation as if he knows all the facts and is certain that it will work. In other words, Kagome runs into a situation that has a lot more risk behind it in the manga.

Myoga tells her that she will have to use boiling water to take out to frog, before suggesting oil, both of which Kagome knows are impossible to get in a situation like this. As they talk the lords tongue wraps around Kagome’s leg and tries to pull her towards him, only for Nobunaga to grab him and stop him. Inuyasha pushes himself up, now firmly intent on putting an end to the lord after he attacked him while he was showing him mercy. He draws his sword intent on killing the frog, telling Nobunaga to stand aside or he would kill him as well. Nobunaga is able to plead with Inuyasha to spare the lord, who then attacks Nobunaga. Kagome tries to reason with Inuyasha to help, however Inuyasha makes it clear that if he gets involved he will kill the lord. With no other choice, Kagome grabs the princess and runs out of the door, before coming to the conclusion that she would need fire to take out the frog. Nobunaga’s monkey races off to get some, finding a small flame. The lords tongue lunges forward, slicing through Kagome’s backpack sending everything inside down to the floor just as Inuyasha makes steps forward, uncaring at this point about the lords heart, Kagome comes to the conclusion of how to drive the frog out. She grabs her hairspray, turning around and using the command on Inuyasha, with him on the ground and safely out of the way, she uses the hairspray to send of blaze of flames at the prince sending the demon out allowing for Inuyasha to attack the frog and kill it.

Nobunaga quickly runs over to Inuyasha thanking him for ‘waiting’ until the frog was driven out to go for the kill. Inuyasha tries to explain that wasn’t the case, however Kagome tells him to leave it alone, giving Inuyasha the credit in Nobunaga’s eyes.

Later, they are all sitting down for a small picnic together while Kagome tries to cheer Nobunaga up, only for Inuyasha to pipe in and call him an idiot for his actions back there, Nobunaga agrees with him, before Inuyasha continues that his stupidity is what allowed a to man to live on, which is enough to make Nobunaga feel better about the situation. Standing up, he walks forward intent on leaving before falling down the small cliff side nearby.

<><><><><> Characterization <><><><><>

There is one thing that Inuyasha will not and really doesn't do throughout the series, he will not harm those that are weaker than him, he will not harm or kill a human. Though some may point to his positive influence from Kagome, she only plays a very minimal part in this case, that largely is due to his mother.

He acts ruthless and merciless and in large part he can be, to demons, but though humans have done him harm in the past there is no escaping his time around his mother, who showed him that humans can be good, time around Kikyo (until they turned on one another) and around Kagome now, do continue the belief that humans can be good. He also has a low tolerance for demons that harm humans, and absolutely refuses if he can help it to be associated with them.

Here he's faced with a pretty big problem, he has a demon that is harming humans, but that demon is possessing the body of a human. Do the actions of the demon outweigh the life of the human? Even before Kagome stated that they should try to find a way to dispel the demon, Inuyasha had already resigned to the fact that he couldn't kill that human. Though he states that he didn't kill the Lord because of Kagome (which is partially true, it's true because he placed the decision in her hand and for a time supported that decision, but also trying to hide this fact (though Kagome saw right through it)), he can't bring himself to do it and huffs and puffs but refuses to do so until he feels he is left without a choice.

With this in mind, he's pretty grateful when it doesn't have to come down to that, but he's left confused when he finds Nobunaga running over to him and thanking him. Confused and stammering he's prepared to tell him that it was actually Kagome that saved the Lords life, but finds himself even more confused when Kagome is passing the credit to him.

<><><><><> Mastery of the Tessaiga <><><><><>

It isn't mentioned yet, but the fact that Inuyasha refused to kill the Lord (at least until he has no choice) proves that he is at the very least worthy of the sword. We'll get into more detail on this later, this is building up to the point when Totosai appears. He doesn't use the sword very much, and when he does it's in most cases through non-lethal means, showing his character is well-suited for the sword, even if his attitude about it needs work.

<><><><><> Relationship with Kagome <><><><><>

Inuyasha carrying Kagome around on his back becomes a fairly common thing throughout the series. This is largely something that he only allows Kagome to do, there are exceptions but in each of those cases it's only when carrying someone injured. Here he offers Kagome to climb on when they reach the walls of the Lord's castle (so casually that it's clear it's becoming a second nature to him at this point), before turning and yelling at Nobunaga as he attempts to hitch a ride, he clearly dislikes it, but only complies when Kagome tells him to take him over.

He leaves the choice of leaving the Lord alive or kill him to Kagome, now is partially just a means to prevent him from saying he cannot do it, but it's only showing that he respects her opinion. Though he does sit and essentially pout like a child when she makes her decision and though he doesn't help for the vast majority of the situation, there is a growing respect when he sees just how stubbornly she approaches things, so much so that she doesn't stop until she succeeds. It makes for a nice precursor for what's coming up.

Speaking of what's coming up, as the events after this will show, while he does respect her opinion and while he is getting closer to her, there is one very big hurdle that he has to accept and respect. It's not perfect, but he's warming up to her, so much so that he does let a few things slip when he let's his guard down.

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[thedistantstorm]

A SteelPoncho Dawning - Part 1

A Dawning romance featuring the Commander and the Clan Steward, their feelings for each other coming to a head during the first Dawning celebration following the Red War, featuring Lord Saladin, city food, eventual smut, and a whole lot of pining.

Just before he adjourns the Consensus, Commander Zavala says, “A reminder that Lord Saladin will be arriving next week with the intent of hosting the Iron Banner through the Dawning. I would remind everyone that with the Faction Rallies, Crucible, and Iron Banner all inevitably inspiring competition that we remember what this time of year is about. Dismissed.”

Per usual, Hawthorne is waiting for him when he exits the hall. Usually, one or both of them are too hyped up to do anything productive after the hostilities that typically consume these bi-weekly gatherings of the powers that be. Especially with her adjusting to her new role, specifically the responsibilities, protocols, and expectations that came with, Suraya had taken to asking the Commander questions or voicing her concerns afterward, and he found that such discussions were best done either over a meal, or at the very least, some caffeine. The walk down to the City usually gave her some freedom to think through her questions and, more importantly, get some fresh air after spending hours locked up in the Vanguard Hall.

It was getting colder, scant flakes of snow breezing by as they fall into step together. They are almost to the area of the Tower reserved as residences for the Vanguard and any other high-ranking officials who chose to keep a flat atop the wall when her steps slow and she looks at the swirling snow around them.

“It’s a long walk down there,” She says to him. “You want to ditch the armor and put on something that actually keeps you warm?”

He laughs. “I will be fine, Suraya. The Light is useful to Guardians for more than battle.” He puts a hand on her cheek. She is frigid. He is pleasantly warm.

He feels the grumble she makes through his palm before he removes his hand. “Okay, got it. Awoken furnace.” She rolls her eyes in mock irritation. “Must be nice.”

“I learned very little about solar abilities aside from this,” Zavala hums back. “It certainly has its advantages, but burning hammers do not interest me.”

“I thought it was a maul?”

He shrugs. She giggles. “Of course,” He backpedals, suddenly self-aware of his flippancy, “All of the Titan orders and abilities are of equal importance, do not get me wrong-”

She nudges his forearm with her elbow. “No need to explain it to me, Zavala. I am the last person to be passing judgement. But, speaking of judgement,” She segways for as much for his personal comfort as for sake of moving the conversation along, “This meeting was way lighter on it than the others, thankfully. Anyway, I would like to know more about Saladin-”

“Lord Saladin.”

“Yeah, him-”

“No, I mean Lord Saladin. He was my teacher, Suraya. He is deserving of your respect.”

“Sure. Lord Saladin,” She agrees, with a roll of her eyes that he'll never break her of, “Tell me about him over lunch. Especially stories about both of you. Also,” She leans over to him conspiratorially, falling out of step with him to do so, “This diner we’re going to? It has amazing pie.”

Of course it does, Zavala thinks. That earns her a laugh as he shakes his head. “I'm beginning to think this is all a rouse to coerce me to take you for a meal. Do you actually have things you need to discuss?”

“Please. If I insisted on doing this every time I needed help, we’d go at least three times a day.” She ducks her head, giving him a sheepish smile. “I actually have questions I save up, since, y’know, I haven’t been alive for more than this age of the city and you’re ancient enough to remember most of them - I think.”

He rolls his eyes. “I might be old, but I’m not senile, Hawthorne.”

“Most of the time,” Suraya teases, brown eyes sparkling with a playful glint. She pulls her hood closer to her neck to abate the cold, and his eyes narrow on rosy cheeks and a pink nose. Ignoring her jibe, he can’t help but wonder if she would prefer a scarf in periwinkle or red.

-/

He enjoys spending these afternoons(and the occasional evening) with her, following meetings of the Consensus. Over the last few months since her appointment as Clan Steward, he's had the distinct pleasure of watching her come into her own. He'd asked her to stay and monitor the clans because she had owned them since they were civilian flags waving in the refugee camps at the farm. She excelled at bringing people together, at inspiring unity amongst the Guardians as well as the general population both inside and out of the walls.

Hawthorne, for all her reputation as someone who flew off the handle - there were rumors amongst FOTC about what she could do with a frying pan that she always brushed off(which meant they were true) - was surprisingly poised in Consensus meetings. She'd come in humble but firm, and eager to debate things for the benefit of her people - all people. Instead of screaming when someone voiced something that contradicted her beliefs, she backed up cool statements with fact.

Secretly, he liked to believe he had rubbed off on her - a little. Of course, the last time he'd thought that in a meeting, she'd thrown an absolute fit at something he personally had said, refused to meet with him afterward, and come back hours later to debate with him until the early morning hours.

He remembered fondly taking her to breakfast once they’d finished going round after round of mental warfare. She’d apologized quietly into her tea for the myriad of insults she’d volleyed at him, saying that she was only trying to do what was best for the clans and their people. They looked to her, and she was beholden to defend their best interests wherever possible. His reply was to convince the waitress to bring her the largest slice of apple pie, fresh from the baker's oven, and make her promise never to change.

It is undeniable that he values her opinion, her spirit, her company. She is invaluable to him. A friend. It has been quite some time since he’s truly had a friend. Despite technically pulling rank, they regarded each other as equals, she being his civilian counterpart in all but name.

Not that he needs a sounding board. Certainly, they discuss major issues, and he’d be remiss if he denied ever asking her opinion on items he’d been pressed to decide for the City, but theirs was an easy camaraderie.

She would spend hours reading up on the City’s history, that of their enemies, the Factions, and even the occasional recreational story he’d send her way when he felt she needed a break. In the same way, she’d know exactly when to clear her throat, pull the tablet out of his hands, and force him to take a break - even if she cleverly disguised it as needing him to tend to her until he was out of his own head. His Ghost was certainly pleased with the arrangement, Zavala’s mental health had never been more in hand.

It had probably been a century - maybe more - since he’d looked forward to more than just work. His work was important, irrefutably so, but he found he had a clearer resolve with more anchors than those constantly being forced upon him by political bodies who would see him rip himself apart to please all their whims.

He found himself eager to set aside his reports in lieu of spending quiet evenings lost in crochet while she thumbed through a book, journalled, or tended to Louis. More likely, she’d do all three with the day’s crucible matches playing quietly in the background, take-away containers scattered across one of their kitchen tables if she was feeling adverse to cooking. And oh, if there was something that was incredible about Suraya Hawthorne that was not humanity or clan related, it was that the woman could cook.

At first it had come as a surprise, her casual refusal of more enthusiastic plans for a night spent in his company, sometimes exchanging few words and almost always ending in him waking her to send her home or to her bed while he saw himself out. The rough 'n tumble vibe others so commonly appointed to her could not be further from the truth. She drank very little, hated large, boisterous taverns, and kept a small circle of friends. There was something comfortable about their arrangement, their companionship. Something that came from not discussing, not making it any more than it was.

...Something that was easily avoided, but fierce and strong, exhilarating and new. He refused to really think about it, for fear of ruining the balance they’d managed to attain - that stark contrast from their original interactions during the war, at the Farm. He knew he trusted Suraya Hawthorne with his life, she’d certainly saved it a time or two. He knew in his heart of hearts that she too trusted him implicitly. That was enough. He dared not consider that soft edge in her glances, the occasional brushes of fingertips(or arms, or legs, or her head on his shoulder), their ridiculous ability to wind up on the same wavelength despite varying experiences.

Zavala is pragmatic, rational. He knows better than to look at things through the lens of what he wants, and instead to see them as they are. But so much of it really seems to be the same, no matter how he looks at it. Which is why he refuses to think about it, and instead cherish whatever interactions they have, for what they are. No reading into it allowed.

Even if it meant ignoring that warm, tight feeling in his chest at her successes, or the lack of air in his lungs when she'd look at him a certain way - the way that said she sees him as a man who is more than a title or an immortal or a weapon or a leader, sees beyond arcing fists and too-bright eyes into a soul that is old and new all at once. Or, even still, holding her heartbreak close to his own when she failed, allowing her space when all he wanted was to hold her close and chase it away.

No, he absolutely couldn’t think about it, because he’d be in way over his head, and everything would change.

[derieri]

48-Hour Challenge

I’m late in posting, but I too participated in the 48-hour challenge to write about two characters assigned by a random generator. My pair was Merlin and Zeldris. Please enjoy the first 2,500 words of a fic that I will most likely write more of someday!

Zeldris knew he must have looked a sight as he stormed through the halls: black fury in his eyes, shadow seeping from his skin in tendrils that undulated about him, a murderous scowl on his lips, and one hand on the hilt of the broadsword at his hip. Bitterness and rage emanated from him in an almost-tangible miasma, choking the air around him with his anger and hate.

Despite his dark mood, he did his best not to stomp his way up the hall. He refused to behave like a petulant child when all the responsibilities of the heir to the throne and the leader of the Ten Commandments suddenly belonged to him.

Apparently, those duties also involved spreading the news about Meliodas’ betrayal.

Not one of the many servants and slaves in the castle crossed his path. All the better for them; Zeldris was ready to cleave through anything or anyone who so much as breathed wrong right now.

When he reached his destination, he forced himself to pause and draw a deep breath. If he didn’t calm himself down before he dealt with her then she would not survive the hour, and the weight of his father’s wrath at losing two prized weapons in a single day would fall squarely on Zeldris. It took all the self-control he possessed to raise his arm and knock on Merlin’s door. Maybe he pounded more than knocked, but no splinters flew. No response.

He waited for as long as it took for each of his hearts to beat and then kicked his way into the room.

The loud crash jerked the chamber’s occupant out of her tunnel focus on the text in front of her. Merlin’s head snapped upright and around as Zeldris strode through her door. She blinked a few times, no doubt surprised to see him. Everyone in the castle knew that the two of them did not get along. Personally, Zeldris thought Merlin was closer to the bane of his existence than a mere disagreeable housemate. Now she was his responsibility too, he realized with a resentful lurch in his gut. Meliodas had supervised her training for the last decade.

“Did you need something?” she asked.

Zeldris bristled at her tone. The tilt of her voice was vaguely patronizing as if she found him presumptuous for interrupting something as important as her reading. Fine. He didn’t need that much of her time anyway.

“Yes, I did. I would never suffer your presence just for the hell of it.”

Her eyes lit up, and he couldn’t tell whether it was with irritation or amusement. Knowing her, it was the latter. She loved getting under his skin.

“Of course, I should have known. What is it?”

“Meliodas has defected from the Demon Clan murdered two of the Ten Commandments who tried to stop him. He is a traitor.”

The golden gleam in her eye vanished. Her slightly-parted lips flushed extra pink against her skin as she paled. Despite his stormy mood, Zeldris felt a thin ray of vindictive satisfaction as he watched her crumble.

He was not here to take joy from her distress, however. He’d delivered the message; his task was complete. Without another word, he turned on his heel and left her.

About six paces down the hall, he heard the breathy gasp of a half-stifled sob.

Zeldris paused mid-stride, staring hard at the carpet runner an arm’s length in front of him. Merlin was crying. He ground his rear teeth indecisively. She was not a child, at least not by humans’ developmental standards, and her emotions meant less than nothing to him. He did not owe her any comfort. But Gelda’s admonitions to him to be more sensitive rang in his ears; her nagging that Merlin deserved better than the Demon King’s brutal standard for child-raising and that Zeldris should be the one to provide it to her echoed through his mind. He sighed. Damn woman.

The door hung partway ajar even though he’d pulled it shut behind him, the shattered latch unable to hold it closed. It swung open at the slightest press of his hand. Merlin had not moved from her chair facing the entryway, the only change in her posture how she hunched to cradle her face in her palms. His entry did not stir her.

Zeldris leaned against the wall beside the doorjamb and folded his arms across his chest. A moment later she drew a shuddering breath, and he heard the choke in her throat that threatened the beginnings of a genuine weep.

“Don’t,” he said sharply. She looked up, startled, the sob dying in her mouth. The teasing glow that always lit her eyes had been replaced by a hollow shadow. “Don’t cry.”

She merely stared at him, lost.

Discomfort prickled at his spine. It seemed that that self-assured detachment from the world and the people in it that bothered Zeldris so much, was a front, at least where Meliodas was concerned. She obviously felt attached to him, perhaps just as much as Zeldris himself was. The revelation undercut his impression of her as haughty and belligerent so thoroughly that he wasn’t sure how to proceed. They only ever opposed one another. Now they shared something: the loss of a person who was very important to them both.

He swallowed.

“Don’t cry,” he said for the third time. “The Demon King doesn’t like it,” he continued. “He won’t… tolerate it. You’ll get in trouble, if you weep for him. And today is not a good day to piss my father off.”

She still didn’t speak, but he saw her give him a tiny nod.

“Are you going to burst into tears if I leave again?” A tiny shake of her head. He pushed himself off the wall. “Alright then. You have the day off from training and lessons. Send me your schedule by nightfall and I will start filling in for him tomorrow.”

Meliodas’ betrayal changed their relationship completely. Zeldris stopped avoiding her, at first out of obligation. At some point, he began to spend time around Merlin of his own volition. Gelda was excessively pleased.

He discovered that she was intelligent, exceedingly so for a creature with only fifteen years of experience. She could not keep up with a demon physically nor match their sheer power, but she made up for her deficit in cleverness and razor-sharp instinct. Even the most accomplished human mages were no more than fodder to a demon’s strength; Merlin was something else.

As the war escalated, the Demon King ordered her training to as well. Zeldris enlisted Chandler, who had not had anything to occupy him for nearly a century, to teach Merlin as well. She chased him off within an hour, the ancient demon declaring her ‘deplorably impudent’ as he stormed away and, Kusack informed Zeldris later, ‘terrifying’ in private.

That was the first time that something to do with Merlin filled Zeldris with pride. However, it was far from the last. His personal favorite was when she modified a simple fire spell to mimic the attributes of Enchant Hellblaze and surprised Estarossa with the flames mid-spar. Monspeet’s expression as he spectated was priceless to behold.

Somewhere along the line, Zeldris began to perceive himself as an older brother.

It was a far cry from when he first met Merlin, an encounter he remembered with such clarity that it could have happened within moments instead of decades.

His father summoned him on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon. He was surprised to enter and see Meliodas present as well, looking peeved. The Demon King was impassive as ever.

He closed the door behind him and bowed to the King, then gave a respectful incline of his head to his eldest brother.

“Why did you summon me?” he asked.

“We found her. Belialuin’s Daughter.” Meliodas tilted his head in the direction of a fourth person who Zeldris had not noticed before then. A tiny scrap of a thing with dark hair and a conspicuous lack of a strong magical aura. This human child was supposed to be the legendary trickster? Neither Meliodas nor the Demon King was one for humor, but certainly, this was a joke.

“I thought that survivor vanished.”

His father answered before Meliodas could. “She did. Your brother found her.” Meliodas snorted.

“She recanted her stupid decision of betraying our King,” he explained with a violent glare at the girl, “and chose to serve the Demon Clan.”

Zeldris narrowed his eyes at the child, who stood in Meliodas’ literal shadow with an indecipherable expression. As he examined her further, he decided it was fear—or, at least, something like it. She knew who she was in the room with and what they were capable of, and she was appropriately humbled by it. Damn right after the hell-scape Belialuin became.

“She will be spending most of her time with Meliodas and Gowther. However, I thought it wise to make introductions.”

“I see…” he murmured. He gazed at her as he probed her magic slightly. His eyebrows folded together as he tasted the nature of her power’s weak flicker. “It’s human?”

“Myrdin.” Zeldris barely suppressed his start at the sound of a demon’s name rasping from her throat. No one corrected him when he called her human. As far as he knew, humans were incapable of vocalizing like that. “My name is Myrdin.”

He glanced up at his father, wondering if he already knew she could do this. The Demon King’s expression did not change, but Zeldris knew him well enough to read the expectant look in his eye. A beat of silence passed

“At present, she has chambers here in the castle with a strict guard, to which you will return her now. Meliodas and I have matters to attend to between the two of us.”

“Yes, sir.”

He let the door close behind them before he turned to the left and lead her away. The length of the hallway was silent, and neither Zeldris nor Myrdin spoke a word for several long minutes. She kept pace at his side despite his longer legs and purposeful stride, so Zeldris used the opportunity to examine her more thoroughly than he had in the war room. He could not wrap his head around the idea that this girl had attracted not only the attention but the desire of two gods—enough for them to offer her gifts, at that. She was only human.

“You never told me your name,” she observed after a while. Zeldris thought through the past few minutes, and she was correct.

“I am Zeldris, the Executioner. I am the King’s youngest son.”

Like he had not responded to her introduction, neither did she reply to his. Another silent minute passed. When they were only a hall’s length away from her door, she suddenly decided to speak again.

“You think because I’m human I must be weak,” she said. “That’s stupid of you.”

Any benign curiosity Zeldris had held about her a moment ago evaporated in an instant. In its place, he felt irritation — the very special kind he only experienced when dealing with lesser beings.

He stopped in his tracks and scowled at her, but his face was well above her eye level. She seemed unbothered by his ire. In fact, she walked a few more paces before she realized that he was no longer beside her, and when she paused and turned around her face bore an expression of genuine confusion. No, it only appeared real. In the slight curve of her lips and the glimmer behind her eyes reeked of smugness. She knew her comment got under his skin. In fact, she’d said it just to see if it would.

Politics and manipulation had never featured strongly in Zeldris’ education. He had no talent for restraining himself unless it was necessary. At that moment, he could not help himself but give her exactly what she wanted.

“Seems intelligent enough to me,” he sneered. “Humans cannot fly, you cannot heal or curse, you have no exceptional strength or a bond with the earth, your life spans are brief and your bodies frail. I do not see how that could be construed as anything other than pathetically weak.” She did not flinch.

“Exactly. And in your low opinion of me, I find strength.”

Oh? “And how do you manage that?”

She pursed her lips smugly at his rage. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“If it were not for the fact that my father seems to value you, I would strike you dead for your impudence here and now,” he snarled, glowering.

“I know. Good thing you are such a loyal son,” she snickered.

“That said,” he continued, his voice lowering so that it almost resembled a growl, “I am sure your value can be fulfilled without you being fully intact. You are only a human, after all. In fact, I might be rewarded for humbling you. Clearly, the fate of your village taught you nothing about taunting a demon.”

Myrdin blanched. Zeldris felt not even a speck of remorse at the cocktail of horror, guilt, and grief that bled across her features. He took a half step closer and was satisfied to see her move backward in response.

“Pathetic. Bring up one weakness of yours and you cave. You disgrace your demon’s name.” He bared his teeth at her.

“Get out of my sight.”

He did not miss the flash of hatred in her eyes as she turned and ran down the hall to her room. By the end of the week, everyone called her Merlin instead.

Eight years later, the war Meliodas began was in full swing. Zeldris had been elevated to membership in the Ten Commandments, and his authority grew as the Demon King prepared his retreat to Purgatory.

Merlin’s power grew as her human young adulthood waxed into adolescence. She squared off with the Ten Commandments to hone her capabilities, and on her own strengths and merit, she earned their respect and then their awe. Every one of them was shocked to discover her immunity to the power of their precepts.

As she became more competent and mature, she and Zeldris forgot their bitter introduction. At Gelda’s urging, Zeldris introduced her to Merlin. He had expected them to be too different to get along well, but they hit it off immediately and even began writing letters back and forth. More than once Zeldris wondered if Gelda shared feminine secrets with Merlin that even he did not know about.

In the end, his possessiveness got the better of him, and he and Merlin toed around the topic of his lover whenever it came up thereafter.

All his second-guessing and bitterness about introducing the two women in his life was rendered void about four years after the war began. For there came a moment when Zeldris profoundly needed someone who understood.

To Be Continued...?