Future

Author: Seth

"To know what is to come is to be forever haunted by that which you can never change."

Raitou tugged off his final sock, wriggling his feet pleasurably on the cold metal floor of his room before tossing the smelly article of clothing to join its partner at the foot of his bed. Normally he wouldn't be this sloppy, but the scarred panthryan was tired and really didn't feel like making the extra effort of ferrying his dirty laundry to the small hamper that sat next to his door. He'd do it tomorrow.

Settling onto his bed with a sigh, the silvery-headed soldier paused and held out a single hand, ticking off the passing seconds. At the count of ten, he smiled wanly and finally allowed himself to settle down on the firm bunk.

At which point a frantic knocking broke out at his door.

Of course.

Listing off a litany of mental curses, Rai hauled himself out of bed. And he'd been so ready for a good day's sleep too…

"What is it!?" The assassin barked moodily, yanking open his door. "Can't this wait unti- Ooof!"

Raitou stared dumbly down at the blue-haired figure of Shadow who'd shot through the door the moment he'd opened it and had latched her arms around his mid-riff like some fleshy vice. The girl was crying.

"H-Hey, what's wrong…?" The ex-mercenary asked, flustered as he awkwardly patted his companion's shoulder.

"I-I don't want you to die…" Shadow hiccupped, burying her face into his chest.

Rai blinked. Ok, where the hell had that come from? They had been fighting side by side for years and this was the first time she'd ever voiced such a fear.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered, even as he mentally swore at himself with the foulest language he could conjure. He'd uttered that promise before. Twice. He'd walked away both times with another life on his conscience and a word that was worth less than nothing.

Shadow nodded miserably, wiping her eyes on his muscle shirt.

"Sorry," she sniffled, offering no explanation for her sudden breakdown.

"It's all right," Rai assured her, deconstructing his perpetual personal bubble with a supreme effort of will and giving her a somewhat stiff hug.

Part of it was because he truly cared for his wonderfully simple-minded partner, but another part of it, the one he always hated himself for, was because that cold, analytical section of his mind knew just how much she meant to him. He held no illusions about his own mental stability – he couldn't afford to, given his career – and if Shadow broke, he knew he wouldn't be far behind.

Shadow nodded mutely, as much to tell her friend that she acknowledged his statement as to convince herself of its validity.

"I-I think I'm okay now…" The cyclopic girl mumbled as she drew away from her scarred companion.

Reaching forward, Shadow gently plucked at the yellow bandana that decorated Rai's left arm, still in the exact same place she'd first tied it.

"Could I… Could I take this with me? Just for a little bit?" She asked hesitantly.

Rai immediately slipped the length of bright cloth from his arm and offered it to his closest friend. He didn't know why she wanted it back, if only for a short time, and he wasn't about to ask. If it helped her feel better, that's all that mattered.

"Thanks," Shadow mumbled, gingerly accepting the accessory which she'd found all those years ago.

Raitou watched his partner leave without a word, staring at the door through which she'd left before shuffling back to his bed. The ex-Royal Guardsman tucked himself in and lay his head down on the thin pillow that crowned the top of the bed.

He didn't fall asleep for a long time.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shadow sat cross-legged in that immense field of emerald grass, her ears filled with the rustle of swaying verdure, the caress of the wind and the insistent badgering of a certain blue-haired little terror.

The young spy had attention only for her eyes, though, which were riveted to a crude, crayon drawing. One featuring the other little bluette who was sporting the exact same bandana Shadow had begged of Rai hours (or maybe minutes, she could never tell here) before, and a one-armed stickman with a shock of silvery hair, clothed in a robe as black as Death.

"Nee-chan! Pay attention to Fuu, Shadow nee-chan!"

Slowly, Shadow lifted her eyes from the crayon rendered Fuu to her real live counterpart who was showcasing her recently acquired ability to handstand.

Fuu beamed with uninhibited pride at her accomplishment before her balance wavered and she fell on her rear with a squeak.

Shadow smiled sadly at the little girl. With great care, she folded up the crayon drawing and slipped it into her pocket.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shadow's hands shook violently, barely managing to hang onto the match and its corresponding box. The bandana hung innocently off her bedpost, its sun-like design staring her in the face.

Waveringly, the one-eyed girl held the match to the rough strip of phosphorous that ran the length of the matchbox.

'Shadow nee-chan's the best! Fuu wants'ta be just like Shadow nee-chan!'

Shadow's hands shook, and the match spluttered to life. The young woman stared as the flame started to crawl down the length of the wood, her body shaking harder with each passing second.

In a violent motion, the blue-haired girl hurled both the match and the box at her wall, sinking limply to the floor as the box exploded against the wall and wooden matchsticks rained down upon the floor.

She couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it.

Tears began trickling down her face as she stared at that godforsaken piece of yellow cloth, mocking her from its perch on her bed.

"Why does it have to be this way?" Shadow sobbed quietly into the floor, blind to all but her own tears.

And the cycle groaned onwards, impervious as it always has been and always will be.

Translate

Author: Seth

"You've got to watch your pride and your priorities, you know? Some things aren't worth risking your friendship over."

Squeeze.

Hey, you all right?

Squeeze. Twist.

C'mon, answer me.

Squuuuueeeeeze.

Pretty, pretty please with a cherry and tons of sharp, pointy things on top?

Yank.

I'm warning you...

Whack.

Senma groaned, clutching his forehead and mentally cursed the people who had built the Ginsenkei compound. You would think that being one of the original members of the organization, they would have built the doors tall enough so that he wouldn't have to duck through every one, but nooooooooo.

Tug, tug. Squeeze.

Serves you right. Now, are you ready to be reasonable?

The blind teen suppressed the urge to shoot a glare in the direction he knew Shion to be standing. The girl was nothing if not persistent...

Senma shuddered as he felt himself pass within a hairsbreadth of a wooden pillar.

Tug. Squeeze. Pull.

You're making this difficult~

Senma shook his head.

"It's not your problem." He said out loud.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Shion replied, looking honestly confused.

Poke.

Watch it, buster.

Senma frowned and shrugged his shoulders.

I'll deal with it.

Shion copied her teammates frown, almost scarily so in its exactness

Prod. Drag. Flick.

One last chance...

Senma just shook his head. He was adamant in this, and Shion wasn't going to convince him otherwise, no matter...

Gone.

The ever present touch of his companion was suddenly gone. Senma stood stock still, completely shocked. They'd had their arguments before, but Shion had never gone so far as to outright abandon him mid-walk.

Gathering his wits about him, the blind archer started to move forward ever so carefully. He wasn't going to ask for help, and he wasn't going to use Air Field; either would prove his friend right.

A slight hint of a breeze. He was outside then. Probably near the courtyard. He'd lost track of their location during the discussion. Or rather, Shion had cajoled and he'd ignored her...

Easy, easy. No walls in front of him. No pillars either.

No pillars... what did that remind-

Whump.

Senma lay exactly where he'd fallen, face first in the dirt of the courtyard. He wasn't going to give in. He wasn't going to... He wasn't... He...

"All right, all right, I'll talk about it, ok?"

Pat. Grasp. Haul.

See? Was that so hard?

Senma sighed as Shion helped him to his feet. There were worse fates he supposed. He had to admit, it was probably wiser to give in before his friend resorted to more drastic measures to 'convince' him.

Organization

Author: Seth

"Sometimes, if you're lucky, you might be able to leave the organization, but the organization never leaves you."

Hakua rose from the deck of the small boat and raised an eyebrow at the arrow quivering in the center of the small mast.

Odd; the shaft had sunk into the wooden post about two heads higher than he was tall. Whoever had loosed the flight was either a piss poor shot, or they were giving them the benefit of a warning shot, both of which seemed equally unlikely.

The smell of ozone infested the air as the mast suddenly lit up like a sun, exploding a moment later in a furious storm of splinters, accompanied by the malevolent crackle of electricity.

Ahh, well that explained it.

"Gung ho, ain't they?" Akatonbi chuckled. The legendary pirate was still calmly standing at the tiller of their small boat, unperturbed by the sudden attack.

Hakua grunted in assent. If there was one thing he had to give the Rangers, they were tenacious, no doubt about that.

The lieutenant unsheathed a dagger and deflected another arrow aimed at their small craft. The sea lit up and sizzled as another bolt of lightning followed the fresh shaft.

The ex-Lunar Corpsman could admire the zeal with which the Rangers performed their duties, but that didn't stop it from aggravating him like nothing else. The police force's devotion to the hunt meant that they almost never gave up, which in turn meant that they could hold a grudge like nobody' business. This meant that all pirates were all but forced to eliminate any ranger they came in contact with because letting even one go alive usually came back to bite them in the ass in a rather fatal fashion.

Hakua shot a questioning glance at his captain who frowned and nodded sadly.

It was a shame. The figures shooting at them from the shore looked to be little more than children, but even so, she knew what she had to do. She hadn't survived so many years of being an outlaw by leaving loose ends laying around.

Letting go of the tiller, the young woman ran to the prow of the small ship, waiting only a moment for Hakua to grab her waist before leaping into the air, an accompanying gust of wind propelling the two pirates immeasurably farther than they should have gone.

Moments after they left the tiny craft another arrow sank straight into the deck. A second later, a bolt of pure energy slammed into the boat, nearly splitting it in two and dooming the small ship to the watery grave.

"That's some power," Akatonbi whistled as she directed both of them to the shore, "It's a good thing we didn't bring the Karura or she'd be the one sinking down there."

Hakua chose not to comment, instead focusing on not losing his breakfast. A rocking ship during the middle of a storm he could handle, but Akatonbi's preferred mode of transportation was a bit too jarring for his tastes.

The pirate captain set them down on the loamy shore, not twenty feet from the two young rangers.

Right into the path of a speeding arrow as it happens.

Akatonbi twisted her hand and the shaft came to an abrupt stop, spinning weightlessly in the air. A quick flick of her wrist sent the arrow flying back towards the young boys just in time for it to meet a crackling bolt of lighting halfway between the two groups.

"That's a powerful tag team you've got there." The red eyed woman nodded appreciatively. "It's a shame you won't ever improve it; it'd be interesting to see how far it could go. Sorry, we've got nothing against either of you," Akatonbi twisted her wrist and a malevolent wind howled up around her, "but it's you or us. You know how it is."

Both the Rangers gulped, but the blond one fit another steel headed arrow into his bow, the other holding the curved metal of his bow in front of him in; steeling themselves for the coming storm.

The coming storm which never came.

Akatonbi looked questioningly at the hand holding her wrist, and then the lieutenant the hand was connected to.

Hakua was staring at the smaller of the two Rangers with an intensity she'd not seen from him for a very long time. Slowly, the ex-Kurohyou member reached up and tugged at his helmet in what was unmistakably a salute.

Akatonbi blinked and looked from Hakua to the young Ranger who was still quivering right up to his red faux-hawk. "Oh you have got to be shitting me," the legendary pirate breathed.

The lieutenant slowly shook his head.

The pirate captain started laughing, much to the consternation of the two confused Rangers. "Haha-HA! That is brilliant, that is absolutely brilliant! What are the odds?!" Grinning, the young woman grasped Hakua's hand, "Well, it looks like it's your lucky day kiddies. But just this once, m'kay? We won't let you go if we run into you again."

Still laughing, Akatonbi launched both herself and her lieutenant – who had hastily grabbed onto her waist – as far into the sky as she could, leaving behind two completely bewildered Rangers.

Believe

Author: Seth

"Let those who have never suffered say what they want, true belief is eternal."

"Where do you think you're going?"

Tel stopped mid-pace, gently placing his foot back to the ground.

"I have some unfinished business to take care of. But you already know that, don't you?" He replied, refusing to turn around.

"You shouldn't go." Yuu admonished, though his words had no strength behind them. "You won't stop regretting. Not this time. Not the next. Not ever."

Tellyth trembled. "I don't want to hear that crap from you of all people. You know how this works. Why are you even trying when you know that all it will do is hurt us both?"

"I have enough to regret already." The redheaded shinigami answered quietly. "I don't need any more."

"… Does it really never leave you? Not ever?" Tel asked hesitantly and at length.

"No."

Finally, the ex-Ginsenkei soldier turned to meet the dull gaze of the death god. "And is it worth it?"

"I don't know." Yuu shook his head slowly.

Tellyth stood there, watching the other young boy, enveloped in his voluminous black robe. As he regarded the shinigami, he couldn't help but feel as if he'd never seen an older, more tired person, save for maybe one.

"But you never stop, even though you don't know." The trap expert looked down at his feet.

"Because I don't know." Yuu replied, turning on his heel and started walking away.

"So we have to hope?" Tellyth asked, slightly desperately. "Again, and again, and again because… we believe?"

Yuu let out a hollow laugh. "What else do we have?"

Tel stood in the same spot long after the steps of his companion had faded away, staring into space. Idly, he fingered his robe, tumbling the conversation over and over in his mind.

It was an odd feeling, having all the choice in the world, and absolutely no choice at all. In that context, he could understand his fellow's actions, if only faintly. It was something he had to do, not because it would accomplish anything, but because it was something he had to do.

Tel chuckled lowly. No difference, yet all the difference in the world. He was getting philosophical; fancy that.

Turning, he continued to walk the path he'd originally been walking. He had a reunion to go to.

"Because we believe… that it'll be worth it, huh?" He murmured quietly to himself as he let his existence bleed out of the pattern. "Forever."

Looking Back

Author: Seth

"Even though we always came so close to killing each other, I still think we couldn't have made a better choice."

She'd always known that this day would come. She'd worried about it constantly since they had separated; he to learn how to fight in hopes that he might one day save those who had fallen prey to trade that had torn their lives apart, and she to repay a life debt owed twice over.

And now here she was, facing her own family, knowing that she'd never forgive herself if he died.

As an arrow tore into the main mast, and jagged streams of pure energy followed ripping the sails to tatters, she smiled ever so slightly.

Maybe she needn't have worried. He'd grown up.

Retry

Author: Seth

"Do you honestly believe anybody's an addict because they want to be?"

Some wondered why he was bitter.

The first time had been like a shard of ice, driven straight into his heart. He'd been so close... So he tried again.

Once he had been asked whether being a cold bastard came naturally to him.

It wouldn't hurt so much if she didn't always smile that kind, sad smile.... If only he'd been a little faster, just a little faster... So he tried again.

 He'd simply smiled and told them that he wished it did.

A hundred times later the only difference is that he knows that he'll always be too slow, that he will never make it. Still he tries again.

 Practice makes perfect right?

Fears

Author: Seth

"Everyone's got their fears. Some might seem small or illogical, but in the end they all have the potential to be equally potent."

Rai settled down on his rough but comfortable bed with a sigh of contentment. The day was finally over, he had no missions waiting for him in the morning and for once he didn't have to wear that damned arm to bed. It was finally time for him to get some well deserved-

"OH KAMI, THERE'S HUNDREDS OF THEM!!!"

-rest…

Grumbling, the scarred panthryan heaved himself from his still cold cot and shuffled over to the door. He had a pretty good idea what Shadow was screaming about, but it never hurt to be sure.

Sliding his door open, Rai followed the sounds of frantic banging over to his partner's room. Without even bothering to knock, the silvery headed man creaked Shadow's door open and…

Yep.

Spiders. Lots of them.

It looked as if some sadistic twist of fate had spawned a spider generator under Shadow's bed, and the girl was most definitely not pleased.

Hopping around like a monkey on crack, the young assassin stomped flat every arachnid that got within a foot of her with a vindictiveness she rarely showed even to her enemies.

Unfortunately for the blue haired panthryan, her arch-nemesis had sheer numbers on their side, and if things continued as they were she'd wind up splattering enough of the eight-legged arthropods to carpet her floor.

"Shadow."

"DEATH TO THE EIGHT-LEGGED ONES!!!"

"Shadow!"

"YOU WERE JUST WAITING FOR ME TO FALL ASLEEP SO YOU COULD CRAWL DOWN MY THROAT, WEREN'T YOU!?"

"SHADOW!"

"YOU'LL NEVER GET ME YOU- Wha?"

Pausing mid-stomp, Shadow rotated towards the door.

Frowning, Rai beckoned shortly.

Shadow needed no further encouragement and all but rocketed from the room.

"So what's our plan of attack?!" The cyclopic girl grinned eagerly as Rai snapped the door shut. "We're going to make those eight-legged freaks pay, aren't we? Aren't we? Oh yes we will~" She giggled dementedly in a downright creepy fashion.

"We aren't going to have a plan of attack." Rai sighed.

"WHAT?! Bu-bu-but if we don't wipe 'em out, they win!" Shadow cried out.

"We aren't going to have a plan of attack." Rai repeated himself, steamrollering over Shadow's outburst. "We are going to get a professional exterminator to fumigate your room tomorrow morning."

"But that's my room!" Shadow whined. "I'm not letting those furry little bastards have it, I sleep in there!"

Rai palmed his face tiredly. It was far too late for this kind of crap…

"And I'm not grinding a couple hundred spiders into my feet, which, you might notice, are bare." Raitou commented dryly. "And I'm not going to get my shoes. Yours look like they need to be burned as they are." He eyed Shadow's gore stained sock-sandal-things pointedly.

"Listen," Rai said as Shadow opened her mouth, no doubt to raise another complaint, "I'm tired, and I want to get some sleep. If you need a place to sleep, then you can use my room." Shadow wavered slightly, and Rai wriggled his bait that crucial bit. "If you can wait until tomorrow to exact your horrible, horrible revenge on them, then there's a bunch of banana's in it for you."

Rai might as well have been able to see all the cogs clicking into place in Shadow's brain.

Hook, line, and sinker.

"Come on, you slowpoke!" The grey eyed girl called as she dashed to Raitou's room. "The sooner we get to sleep, the sooner tomorrow comes!"

Chuckling, Rai followed his companion at a far more sedate pace.

Funnily enough, he found that he didn't mind the whole fiasco all that much. In fact, it was… nice, in a way. His partner's abhorrent fear of spiders was just so… normal. It didn't stem from a horrible childhood, or torture, or death. It was just a simple fear for a simple girl.

Rai smiled. Yes, it was nice, having that small connection to a world of petty concerns. A world he'd left behind long, long ago.

Confusion

Author: Seth

"Me? I'm just a boy with a few family matters to take care of."

The rage… was gone.

Slowly, he became aware of his ragged gasping. The harsh sounds of battle started to override the roar of blood that had been pounding in his ears for so long he'd forgotten that any other sound existed. Bit by bit, the red haze that had clouded his sight bled from his eyes.

And the pain, let's not forget about the pain. It was as if his entire body, his entire being was made of the malevolent feeling.

'Shit, but I'll never get used to that.' Halo thought weakly to himself as he used his butcher's sword to push himself back to his feet. Just because it felt as if he'd be better off dead didn't give him the right to lie down and go through with it. There was still a battle to fight.

Dull footsteps rang out behind him, almost completely obscured by the crashes of the raging battle. Through a supreme effort of will, the spent drakonian heaved himself around, bringing up his cleaver just in time to intercept the forceful jab of a spear.

'There goes my bet with Marten.' Halo though wryly as he crashed to the ground. Oh well, losing, if it came to that, took second seat to other, more important matters. Like death.

Shakily, the orange haired man pulled his giant hunk of steel on a stick in front of his chest in a weak defence. The stony faced gryphane barely even acknowledged the effort, marching up towards the fallen drake and raising his spear for the final blow.

Wasn't it just typical, Halo mused as the enemy soldier blocked out what faint grey light there was on the battlefield. Of all the times he'd thrown himself into the hearts of enemy platoons, of all the other deaths he might have died and here he was, in the one position he'd promised himself he'd never end up in; lying on his back as he waited for the reaper.

A sharp whistling sound cut the air as the spear came down, and the gryphane was literally blown off his feet before the polearm could make contact. Halo was left blinking slowly, staring at the space his would be killer had occupied not half a second ago.

Turning his head to the left, Halo made out the two halves of what had once been a proud gryphane, savagely bisected by a gigantic circular weapon of some sort which lay embedded in the ground right in the middle of the two halves.

"You should take better care of yourself." A faintly amused voice sounded beside Halo. "One might get the impression that you don't care whether you live or die."

Weakly, Halo sat up and watched as a peculiar boy walked past him and uprooted the oversized implement of death, retracting the blades that jutted out of it. The boy (or was it a young man; he couldn't tell), obviously a drake by the way he so easily handled the heavy weapon, slung the now make-shift shield over his back.

"I stopped caring a long time ago." Halo replied tiredly, laboriously pulling himself to his feet. "But thanks for saving my life all the same."

"Are you so eager to venture to the other side?" The boy's entire face smiled calmly, his floppy yellow hat adding to the aura of queer cheerfulness that sat at complete odds with the nature of his words, not to mention the horror of the battlefield they found themselves in.

Something about the brown haired young man jiggled at Halo's memory, but he couldn't tell what.

"Maybe I am." Halo admitted as he strode forward painfully and retrieved his second cleaver from the place he'd dropped it earlier, slotting the two great butcher's knives together to form one enormous double-bladed sword.

"Only fools venture to the land of phantasms in pursuit of shadow dreams." The boy looked at Halo with something akin to nostalgia in his bright blue eyes.

 "That sounds like a quote of some sort." Halo said, his tone questioning.

"They're the words of a little boy who wished very dearly to return to his parents, though I suppose he wasn't so little when he said them." The youth sighed before turning his back on Halo.

"So which one is it, the land of phantasms?" Halo asked, staring at the dead gryphane. "This life or the next?"

"I'd like to know that myself." Ihe young man laughed without turning around, an odd melancholy tinging his voice.

Shaking himself from his stupor, Halo turned around.

"Wait a second." The jaded drakonian called out after the boy's retreating back. "I'd at least like to know the name of the person who saved my life."

The mysterious teen froze, and then slowly pivoted towards Halo.

"No you don't." He smiled the saddest smile the red eyed draconian had ever seen, and then whirled around and fled as if an army of ghosts were upon his heels.

Balk

Author: Seth

"Sometimes there comes a point where you've gotta draw the line."

A stiff wind blew across the bone dry dirt road, kicking up clouds of reddish dust. Coughing lightly, Mitsuyuki tucked his small necklace into his striped shirt before drawing the garment over his nose.

The blonde decided, as he blinked grit out of his eyes, that he infinitely preferred his last posting. At least the sea had fresh, clean air.

Not that what he wanted mattered all that much. Orders came, he obeyed. That was all there was to it.

Some of those orders could be… demanding, and obeying wasn't always easy, but then what use was a loyal servant if the things demanded of him were always straightforward? None at all, and that was the reason he held value.

He'd learned early on that the world was seldom kind to fools who faced the odds, and that to survive you had to have something that gave you worth. For him it was his ability to live more than one life, manoeuvre on more than one level, and it has served him well enough to land him in the service of those for whom the odds were very much in favour.

Even knowing these truths, even having received the great fortune to serve the Talons, he is still human and there are times when his heart overrides his logic. He's never truly betrayed those he serves, though. He knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him, but sometimes he falters.

His presence on this dusty, abandoned pathway is the result of one such attack of conscience. One that he has been struggling with for years.

Uncomfortably, he fingers his dagger. This silent battle between his heart and his head has gone on far too long; it's high time he made a choice. Failing to do so will lose him everything he has ever had.

Slowly, despite his wishes and better judgement his thoughts drift back to the Sorazame and the companions, the friends, the family (for there is truly no other word for it) he has there. He won't be able to return if he carries out his orders.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. He could return, would have to return, but it would not be the Yuki who'd sailed the seas with them for all those years who came back to them. His life with them would be a shell of what it was, he would be a shell of who he was, just as it had happened before.

He can't continue doing this, leaving his lives behind as so many empty shells, tossed on the surf. He knows this, and hates himself for it because it will get him killed. His undoing, orchestrated by his own ideology, is not an irony he wishes to experience any time soon.

His lives are spent; he has already left far too much of himself behind in the other two to do it again.

Ironically enough, it is his logic that finally provides him with an answer.

Alone, cloaked in whirling clouds of ruddy dust, Sanka pulls down the neck of his shirt and fishes out a simple necklace, a length of hardy cord with a small piece of crystal strung onto it.

It is a symbol, and a reminder. That he is a servant, always, of the Talons. But, he reminds himself, the whole clan pays homage to the royal family, and the monarch from whom he has received his orders has not always sat upon the Empyreal throne.

True, only half of their blood may be that of the highborn, but it is of the highest born. Even if his justification should prove unsound, they are not his only option.

After pondering for a moment his expression sets into one of resigned… contentment? And why not? His path is set; he doesn't need to make any more choices.

Smiling ironically the pirate sets off again in the direction he was initially traveling. It wasn't as if his plans needed much changing. He'd been planning on picking up a new dagger for ages now, and he heard that the weaponsmith of the Guild was the best. He wouldn't mind picking up a kasa while he was at it, the sun had been interminably hot this summer.

Old

Author: Seth

"Stop reading so much into this. Just because you're too lazy to make sure your heir is up to scratch doesn't mean I am."

Silent steps across moonlit rooftops.

He adored the night. It was like a familiar cloak that fell over him, hiding him from prying eyes. Eyes that, admittedly, probably weren't even there to begin with.

Not, however, the case on this night.

"For someone skulking around in the dark, you sure are loud."

He barely even registers his hand grabbing his quarterstaff, it's second nature now. Spinning around he levels the polearm in front of himself in a defensive position. No scything blade of electricity, his composure hasn't been completely shattered.

 "What's it to you?" He asks the silver haired figure that emerges from the shadows in front of him.

The figure laughs. It sounds faintly familiar, but he can't place it. The voice sounds slightly feminine, but the figure is one more suited to that of a boy.

"Well it's so embarrassing, watching someone so inept trying to sneak around, making more sound than a wounded elephant. It almost hurts." The – Boy? Girl? He can't tell – laughs again, though with a hard edge to its voice this time. "I can't stand it."

A momentary glint of metal in the moonlight is all the warning he has before sparks erupt in the night air. His assailant's katar screams as it grinds across his staff and he has to jump back hurriedly before the second one swoops into his gut.

"Then go somewhere else. No one's forcing you to be here." He growls as he counterattacks, jabbing his stave forward in a lightning quick thrust.

"Oh, but there is." The girl – He's almost sure it's a girl; even through the poor light he can see that the figure has no Adam's apple – parries his blow. "There is someone forcing me to be here, and what do I find when he finally arrives but that he's barely even competent at stealth. You can't blame a girl if that makes her a more than a little annoyed."

Ducking under the re-directed staff, the (now confirmed) girl leaps forward, attempting to disembowel him once again. It takes every bit of his innately high reflexes to let go of his weapon and spin out of the way. Coming out of his spin he slams his palm into the passing girl's back, blowing her forward with an extra strong burst of electricity as a parting gift.

He doesn't go in for the kill though, doesn't want to. Not this night. He has enough spectres haunting him as it is, no reason to add to them.

"I have no idea what you're taking about." He warily retrieves his staff, but doesn't return it to his holster. He knows the false security that comes with a downed enemy well enough by now. "I didn't force you to wait around on this rooftop all night. I've never done anything to you, I don't even know you."

A gurgling laugh erupts behind him and the purple eyed girl pulls herself to her feet. He's going to have to reconsider the amount of juice he puts into his attacks, she shouldn't have been able to stand up.

"Yeah, but I know you." She grins, the pale light of the moon glinting off her teeth.

"You're passable I guess." The silver-haired girl sniffs, putting away her katars. "But you'd better make sure you improve by the time we see each other again." She gives him an odd, unreadable look. "You've got a path to follow. A… duty; older than time, and if you haven't the decency or the capability to honour it I will hunt you down and end you myself. Are we clear?"

Her mysterious look vanishes, replaced by a mischievous grin. "Not that I wouldn't be hunting you down anyways."

Before he has a chance to ask a question, utter even a single word, the girl has already hopped off the roof, into the shadows below. He doubts he'd be able to track her down.

"What the hell was that all about?" He murmurs to himself, trying to piece together the cryptic words his fellow night time wanderer had given him.

"A… path. Old as time." He turns on the spot, taking in the city around him. Urban rooftops bathed in half-light and shadow, as far as the eye could see. "Is that what this is?"

Walk

Author: Seth

"How do you expect me to heal from something I let happen, each and every day of my life."

It was, Rai supposed, too tempting a prospect to pass up.

"Is there something I can do for you?" The young man in front of him, roughly eighteen years of aged, asked cheerily, curiously trying to get a peek under his hood.

Rai slowly withdrew his hand from the silvery haired youth's shoulder as a thousand words jammed themselves in his mouth, all screaming at him, pleading with him to be spoken.

He remained silent.

"If you don't nee-" the golden eyed teen started before a haggard voice cut him off.

"You're… Today is… Valentines day, isn't it?"

"… That's right…" the boy replied, quite wierded out by the stranger in the black robes. "Is there… something wrong with that?"

Rai paused as the words redoubled their efforts to break free.

"… No," the mangled panthryan finally shook his head ruefully. "There's nothing wrong. I'm just being a sentimental fool. Forgive me."

 Rai watched the young soldier hastily take his leave, while his heart bawled, screaming that it wasn't to late, urging him to run up to that oblivious boy and to tell him. But that was the catch, now wasn't it? It wouldn't ever be too late.

Even as his mind struggled with the choice that wasn't, Rai's body quietly took the only path that had ever been open to him and Slowly. Walked. Away.

Lurking

Author: Seth

"Sneak about the subject all you want, but you can't hide forever."

Night quietly slipped over the Ginsenkei compound, swiftly enveloping the entire garrison in a blanket of darkness. Something a certain creeping figure was trying to take advantage of.

'Almost there…' The shady individual thought tiredly. 'Just need to get a quick dressing on the wound, a change of pants.' A hand drifted down and gingerly felt the thigh high gash that had ripped the left pant leg open. 'The mission report can wait until tomorrow, and I can make a little side trip to burn these while I'm at it.'

Quickly stealing down a side passage, the night time spectre soundlessly slipped into the infirmary, finding the area deserted but also, and more importantly, a fresh roll of bandages and a bottle of antiseptic placed on an out of the way table in the north-western corner of the room.

The young assassin had an agreement with the medic boy. They both had their own way of doing things, and he'd let her take care of herself so long as she actually sought out professional medical attention when she required it.

Silently cleaning and dressing the wound, wincing only slightly when the antiseptic touched the raw flesh, the returning killer carefully replaced the supplies and padded off towards her room.

Pausing seven feet from the door, she quickly went over her 'mission plan' as she would have to pull every step off flawlessly if she hoped to make it to bed undisturbed.

Tiptoeing carefully towards the door, taking extra care to avoid that one plank right in front of the entryway that squeak, she reached forward and noiselessly slid the panel open. Curling past the partition, the infiltrator closed the door behind her and drifted over to a small chest lying next to her futon.

She eased the lid open… and let her shoulders droop as a flame lit up the room.

"You've got to stop doing this."   She carefully let the lid drop and turn to face both her teammates, now sitting up in their proper futons, the orange haired one with a tiny conflagration flowing up from her fingertips.

"I shouldn't have to-" She began, sitting herself down on her trunk, fully aware that she was going to be fighting a losing battle.

"Accepting a little help every now and then isn't a failure." The white haired one who had spoken first cut her off. "Is it too much ask? To share even a tiny bit of your burden?"

The light in the room flickered violently.

"Being alone, being 'independent', it's… not good." The golden eyed girl finally spoke up, the flame in her hand sputtering as she spread out her fingers. "Just look at my family. My older brother is the epitome of independence." Her voice grew bitter. "He doesn't need anybody, he just wants to watch things burn." The flame on her index finger sizzled and died. "My half-brother who saw my family for what it was and ran away." The fire on another finger slowly faded away. "My half-sister who's left to fill the void by herself." Another flame was snuffed out, leaving one tiny, flickering blaze on her pinkie. "And me." The final flame grew low. "And I found the two of you." The tiny spark erupted, enveloping her entire hand in a roaring light.

"We're not asking you to magically transform the way you do things right now." The blue eyed shifter added. "Just… think about it, ok?" She lay back on her futon and pulled the covers tightly over herself, closing the conversation. The Fire Sector princess quickly followed her example, extinguishing her hand and drowning the room in darkness once more.

The indigo haired assassin sat on her trunk for a long while after the shadows had reclaimed the room once more. Finally, she stood up and followed the last steps of what had been her mission plan before it had been irrevocably derailed.

'Think about it, huh…?'

She turned in her futon, her spare pair of pants slowly warming up to match the rest of her clothes.

Maybe tomorrow she'd see about getting the cut in her regular pants sewn up.

Rot

Author: Seth

"You really should quit. It's unhealthy. It'll rot you from the inside out."

"What are you doing out here so late at night?"

He didn't respond immediately, instead opting to take a long drag on his cigarette before languidly exhaling a nebulous plume of smoke. Jabbing his cancer-stick securely between his fingers the tousle-haired man leaned against the ships rail and sighed.

"Thinking."

"What else is new?" The woman sighed, though in a more exasperated fashion than her companion as she tugged at the bandana on her forehead.

Everybody seemed to be thinking these days. She couldn't blame them she guessed, what with the news from the mainland. A whole army, and inhuman to boot…

"Well don't waste too much of your time on it, ok? That's my job." The young woman joked; her voice tinged with a jagged hint of bitterness as she withdrew a slip of paper from under her bandana and stared at it for a moment.

The man looked over at her for a moment before heaving another sigh and taking another deep drag from his cigarette. Turning back to the sea, the man quietly watched the waves as the boat sped across the water.

Moments later the sound of boots echoed across the deck, a door was opened, and then closed, and the man was left alone with the sound of the waves lapping against his thoughts.

Light

Author: Seth

"I know you don't like it all that much, but do you really think I'll live long anough to regret it?"

3) Light

'Dammit, there has to be one somewhere... where'd I leave them?'

Not that it really mattered whether he remembered or not. The point was that he didn't have one on him now and it was killing him. He gave a little chuckle at the irony of the thought, which rapidly melted into an annoyed growl as his search continued to yield no results.

Giving up in disgust he contented himself with taking a small roll from a case he always carried around with him and sticking it in his mouth, unlit.

'Maybe Kitsuno is wandering around...' He mused, though he was in no mood to seek out the fiery prince.

Leaning back against the steps he was sitting on he closed his eyes for a moment. It was a nuisance, being out of matches, but he wasn't going to let that prevent him from enjoying what he did have. Down time was rare enough as it was, these days.

A sharp hiss split the air, followed by a sputtering light.

Cracking one of his eyes open he found the tip of his cigarette glowing a deep orange.

"Need a light?" His subordinate asked rhetorically as she eased herself down next to him, waving out the match in her hands.

His face softened as he took an experimental puff, leaning slightly into her.

"Thanks."

Empty

Author: Lariat


"It's nice to finally have you back, you know." She said with smile, laying down their respective tea cups, sitting down afterward. "I was getting worried about you."

"Please, as if I'd die off so easily like that." He said sarcastically taking his teacup in his hands.

"Well, I'm just saying, I'm relieved that you're all good and well."

"Mmhm." He concurred as he took a sip of tea.

A moment of silence quickly came. She was truly happy that his friend had come back after so long, alive, but at the same time, she was aware of the cautious atmosphere hanging around them, her being the one being very cautious, wary of her friend. She knew that he would have been to a lot of places in the span of nine years, no doubt. But she was afraid to bring up a topic to talk about, all because she knew all too well that he would drive the conversation all the way to that point. She knew him enough to know that it would come to that conclusion. They did live together in their childhood, after all.

Not standing it any longer, he set the teacup a bit less than gently and in a haste on the table, making a sort of loud tap, disrupting the silence between them. This followed shortly by him informing his friend, "I lived in the Hiwa Sector for a while." She twitched. She thought that maybe it would have been better to have had a conversation to delay that point in it.

"...Oh really? I wonder how you were able to take the heat." She said, trying to act natural. She thought that she could somehow drive the conversation away. Though he could sense the hesitance in her voice. He knows her all too well.

"It was okay. They had a pool."

She looked at him in astonishment, "What kind of place did you live in?"

"The palace, of course." He responded.

She started with disbelief in her voice, "The pa--..." She stopped short, realizing what he was doing. She sighed in her mind, 'I guess I still can't beat you, huh...?' "Oh... I see... Must have been nice."

"It was okay, I guess." He took another sip of tea. "He's doing fine, by the way, if you're asking."

'He's already cut to the chase...'

"...I wasn't." She hissed under her breath.

He ignored her growing temper and pressed on. "He asked how you were doing too." He paused. "...I thought you two were--"

"Well, we're not." She cut off harshly.

He looked at her then took another sip. "Hmph." he scoffed, "So it's finally dawned on you that he should be hated." She didn't respond. Rather, she didn't know how to respond. So another quick moment of silence passed. "...It may sound crazy, especially coming from me," 'Here we go...' "but... I think the only who shouldn't hate him..." 'The 'talk'.' "is you."

Another quick moment of silence. "...You're right. That does sound crazy, especially coming from you."

His tone of voice had changed; the tone he always uses whenever he would lecture someone. He was getting tired of this. "Look, I don't know what happened between the two of you, but--"

"You don't need to know."

"...I'm just saying...you should make up with him."

"And why should I?" She said harshly, trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible. He was pissing her off enough as it is.

"Because..." he started, with a hint of concern, "he... actually looked kind of sad when I told him that I haven't seen you for over eight years." He added, "I said that over a year ago." to be more specific.

"Why should I even care if he's sad or not?" She half-yelled, "He was probably just faking it and trying to gain your sympathy."

"You know that he never does anything without reason or merit." He starts off with his lecture tone of voice again, but this time with more...annoyance? "What could he possibly gain from me being sorry for him? Besides, that was the first time I ever saw him even remotely, openly sad." She didn't need to see his face scowling angrily at her. She could already tell what he was thinking. "Seeing him like that was just so foreign to me, I felt like the world was about to end." She knows him all too well. "I can't believe I'm saying this but, I think I'd prefer a happy Cain almost over anything else right now." And she was quite annoyed at how he was saying all of this to her as-a-matter-of-factly, as if she made a huge mistake in her life. "The only way he's going to be happy is if he had fun or..." He paused, trying to calm down, then saying his last words as calmly as possible, "if you were there having fun with him."

Another silence came.

"Think about it, Bean." He said, being the one to break the awkward silence once again, "I think he'd be really happy again... to at least see you one more time."

She still kept her head down low, avoiding eye contact with him. She stayed silent at first, not really sure as to how to respond. "...You say that as if he were dying or something."

He sighed, "Well... I'm not sure about that. But I'm just saying..." He paused once more, taking his last sip of tea, "you should make up with him."

"...No."

He sighed once more, finally giving up and stood up to leave. She didn't stop him. That was the end of that so she didn't care, as long as this conversation was over. He didn't leave immediately, only stopping in the doorway out the room to say just a few more words. "You're the only one who can make him happy, you know." Words that he hoped would make her change her mind. "And if he was happy again... wouldn't that be a nice sight for you? It would sure cheer you up to see that you made someone happy, even if it was Cain."

Another quick moment of silence.

She chuckled at the sight of her friend helping out one of his worst enemies. It was pretty unbelievable and kinda of funny. "Saying all of these stupid things that I would never expect to hear coming out of your mouth... You've really changed, Ryuu."

"Yeah. You have too." Another moment of silence. She knew he still had more to say, since he wasn't leaving completely yet even though he was ready to. Finally, he broke the silence once more, "...You know, I always thought you were so much prettier when your hair was long." This took her by surprise, though she didn't show it. To hear him say that to her...was unexpected. "It's a shame that you had to go and chop it all off." ...Of course, he had to follow up with an insult. "Cain would agree with me too." She twitched.

Another moment of silence came.

With that, Ryuu had left her house. She kept sitting there, staring at her now cold tea that has yet to be drunk. Contemplating the entirety of the conversation and thought back to his last words before leaving.

'I always thought you were so much prettier when your hair was long. It's a shame that you had to go and chop it all off. Cain would agree with me too.'

"...That's the reason why I cut it off in the first place." was her response.

Paper

Author: Nogamo

Haru was in a black mood. He sat at his commander's desk, fuming as he penned a particularly difficult document.

When he had become commander, he knew there would be responsibility attached to the post, but no one told him there would be mountains of paperwork. It was great and all to have negotiated a free trade treaty with the city's merchant guild, but committing this agreement to official papers was a real headache.

"Arrrrgh!" Throwing up his hands, he crumpled up his fourth attempt and tossed it into the hearth opposite his desk.

"Wasting good parchment I see." Haru looked up and turned towards his open doorway. Shion poked in her purple head. "We have firewood, you know," she piped with a teasing grin.

"Not funny, Shishi," Haru sighed. "Come here, help me! I can't write this!"

Shion strode into the room with a laugh. "No way! I can't write that stuff, who do you think I am?" Nimbly, she vaulted herself onto his desk. "Anyway, this is your job, commander."

Haru grumbled unintelligibly in response. He yanked out a new piece of parchment and vehemently began writing again. Shion leaned over with interest, observing the curls of ink. "Your handwriting looks like Sansan's feces," she pointed out.

Haru looked up with a glower. "You're blocking my light."

Shion hopped off the desk and skipped to the fireplace. "Well of course, with such a pathetic fire running. Here, let me."

"Hey wait don't--" Haru scrambled out of his seat, just as Shion tossed a handful of white powder into his hearth. The fire instantly glowed white and swelled to twice its size, filling the room with light. "Useful, aye? Just a little something I've been work--"

BOOM! The hearth exploded behind Shion, sending white sparks zipping through the room and momentarily blinding both soldiers with bright light before extinguishing altogether with a loud "pop". The two stood wordlessly in complete darkness for a few seconds.

"Ahem... It's still in the works," Shion said finally. "...as you can see." She struck a match and lit the oil lamp on Haru's desk.

"My manuscript! What have you done?" Haru exclaimed, gaping at the pile of cinders upon his otherwise empty desk.

"Uh... One of the sparks must've landed on it," Shion said with a strained laugh. "Well, you were just going to throw it into the fire like all the other ones, right?"

Haru gave her a face of exasperation. "Did you come here just to annoy me?"

"No, actually. I came to say I'm proud of you," she replied.

"You...what? OUCH!" he yelped as Shion gave him a hearty clap on the back.

Shion looked away. "I'm proud of you," she repeated, more sheepishly. Before the surprised boy could reply, she grinned once more and headed to the door. "Now I'll leave you to your exciting work. You know, before I do any more damage," she added quickly as she exited.

Haru returned to his desk and pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment. He started to write, but had to stop. He couldn't read what he was writing. The tears were making everything blurry.

Overused

Author: Seth

"Treat your tools right and you can be sure they'll return the favour."

*Wham*

The sound of metal slamming into concrete rebounded throughout Raitou’s room.

Sighing in annoyance, the panthryan lifted his left arm from the wall and absently inspected the row of fresh new pockmarks adorning the grey, uniform stone. Transferring his gaze to his arm he looked at the crude, brutal sawblade that extended from his elbow where he’d once sported a fully functioning, if automated, arm. Sighing again, the silver headed assassin resisted the urge to slam the hunk of metal into the wall again, and instead turned around and dropped down onto his bunk.

Reaching under his bed, the golden eyed man pulled out a plain, well-crafted metal box, and a folded square of well worn leather. Putting the box to the side for the moment, Rai spread out the leather in front of him. Taking a small breath, the panthryan detached his arm with a wince and a small oath and laid it down on the tough animal hide.

Taking another breath, deeper this time, Rai reached forward and placed his left hand on the hunk of lifeless metal.

Sparks flew, the buzz of electricity mixing with the hiss of smouldering leather to form a harsh symphony of industrial sound, and the smell of scorch animal skin filled the air.

With startling speed, the entire arm lit up, bathing the entire room in a dull red glow as it slowly lost its substantiality.

Rai’d found that remaking only a portion of the limb at a time tended to result in a host of minor flaws which took weeks to find and correct, effectively rendering the time saved by doing half-job zero. That and he usually wound up encountering the flaws mid-battle, and so the near death experiences he saved himself were more than worth the extra time spent to ensure that his arm was in perfect working order.

Once he’d melted the limb into a homogenous mass, and was fairly sure he’d incinerated all the impurities he could without tossing practicality completely out the window, Rai started manipulating the superheated metal, slowly, and with meticulous care back into the forms he’d grown to know oh so well.

Bit by bit, sections of the molten metal were drawn away from the larger body to become plates, gears, screws, cables, and at least fifty other finicky little pieces that kept the whole ensemble going, all formed under the careful guidance of his surging element.

As the last bit of metal twisted to form the tip of his pinky (he always ended up making the tip of his pinky last; he wasn’t quite sure why), Rai turned around and opened the metal box he’d put aside earlier.

Rooting through the container for a moment, Rai’s hand swiftly withdrew from the rectangular receptacle gripping a coil of insulated wire. A few more trips and the young man had, in addition to the wire, an assortment of wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and knives (along with a scalpel or two) lying in front of him.

Starting at the shoulder, Rai began the exhausting, and insufferably aggravating process of reassembling his prosthetic arm. While he’d put together the mechanical components of his arm together so many times that he could probably do it in his sleep, rewiring the thing remained, crassly put, a complete and utter bitch.

Grunting with no little relief as he snipped off a bit of excess wire and twisted the final connector onto its open end, Rai placed the newly reconstructed arm onto his bed. Replacing all his tools in their box, he folded up the rectangle of heavily used leather and pushed both back under his bed.

He’d have to give the arm a test run, but he really didn’t feel like doing it at the moment. Transferring the arm to his bedside table, Rai took the limbs place on his bed.

He supposed it was actually a bit of a blessing in disguise, having to remake his arm on a relatively regular basis. It kept the limb from getting worn out, over-used.

Not that it stopped the entire process from being a pain in the ass and a half.

Snorting in wry amusement, the panthryan closed his eyes and drifted off into the deep, dreamless sleep that comes after a hard days work.

Self-Doubt

Author: Seth

"Encouraging your children to succeed is all well and good, but sacrificing their emotional security to do so crosses the line."

The night enshrouding the Jericho compound was silent. Unnaturally so. The usual, never-ending hum that emanated from the surrounding city was still there, but so muted that it may as well have not been.

All in all, the inhabitants of the base found it an enjoyable change. For the soldiers on duty the lack of interfering noise lent them an extra edge during their vigil. The other operatives were able to enjoy a far more restful sleep in the folds of the unexpected silence. In fact, only one member of the Jericho army remained unaffected by the change in noise level.

A tide of synthetic notes and beeps swirled around Bob’s room, accompanied by the uniform click-clack of thumbs on controller buttons.

Sitting in a state of quasi-mediatation – that odd state of half-rest, half-action that was the gate guardian’s replacement for sleep – Bob watched with a casual interest as units marched, battles raged, and experience accumulated. Every now and then the masked teen would save, or re-start the console, depending on whether he’d been RNG blessed or screwed respectively.

A knock on his door – soft, yet firm enough to cut through the mechanical soundscape – brought Bob out of his half-conscious state.

“Door’s open!” The brunette called out by way of invitation.

The door creaked open, allowing Gryff to poke his head in. The fair haired gryphane took a quick look around the room before letting himself in.

“Still on the same chapter?” Gryffin as he took in the T.V. screen. His long-time friendship with the other gryphane had lent him a competent understanding of the games Bob played.

“Nah,” Bob shook his head as he calmly paused and selected ‘Restart’. “Second playthrough. I’d be further along, but Ryuu’s stamina keeps on getting the shaft and Tatane keeps criticalling Haru, so...” The brown eyed game enthusiast gestured vaguely at the screen where the words ‘Chapter 3: Siege of Argenfluo’ were emblazoned in bold, shining, golden letters.

Bob paused as a stray thought drifted through his psyche. Looking out his window he took note of how dark it had gotten since he last checked.

“It’s my shift, isn’t it?” He turned to Gryff.

Gryffin nodded absently, his attention captured by the television screen. Bob had paused the game on Ryuuto’s stat screen, and when the blonde soldier looked closer he noticed that all of the iconic hero’s statistics were perfectly even, with the one exception of his stamina which was lagging behind by two points.

Noticing the direction of Gryff’s gaze, Bob abruptly turned off the console, along with the T.V.

“Thanks for getting me.” The masked soldier mumbled as he walked over to the wall, retrieving the naginata that was leaning there.

Gryff said nothing until the other gryphane moved to walk past him.

“We’re proud of you,” Gryffin placed his hand on Bob’s shoulder. “For who you are.” His hand brushed against the length of red fabric his fellow gryphane used to bind his hair. “Not for who she thinks you should be. Remember that, all right?”

Bob remained silent, but nodded his head before gently pushing past Gryff.

Gryffin remained in the room for a couple more minutes, lost in thought. Finally snapping himself out of his reverie, the blonde gryphane cast one last glance at the now black television screen before exiting the room, locking and closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Carefree

Author: Seth


“You do know you’re supposed to eat that with, well, actual food, right?”

Nyo reached into his pouch of katsuobushi, grabbed a few more of the dried fish shavings and tossed them into his mouth.

“So?” The silver haired thief asked. “They taste good enough on their own as far as I’m concerned.”

“Yeah, but they never fill you up.” Ryuu groused. “I don’t mind stopping once or twice to pick up a snack or two, but we’ve already stopped at seven different fishing stalls today.” The brunette looked about furtively, reassuring himself that none of the proprietors of the aforementioned stalls had somehow caught on and were now hunting them down. “I really don’t feel like having to run away from another six-foot-tall beast of a man wielding a cleaver today, thank you very much.”

“Once!” Niyou gulped down his fish shavings indignantly. “I got caught once, by fluke! And how was I supposed to know that lummox had a licence to use knives?”

“Maybe the fact that he was in the middle of preparing the fugu you stole might have tipped you off?” Ryuu replied dryly. “Really, what possessed you to steal the fish while he was cutting it up?”

“I took two slices! Who notices when two slices go missing!?” Nyo’s hand scrabbled at the bottom of his pouch and he tossed the last of his katsuobushi into his mouth grumpily.

“Says the person who noticed when I traded one of your gold coins for a painted lead fake.” Ryuu raised a thin eyebrow.

“I shower my babies with love each day; of course I noticed!” Nyo huffed. “Are you accusing me of being a poor caretaker, is that it?”

“I rest my case.” Ryuu chuckled. Almost by instinct the young boy’s hand shot out and grabbed Nyo’s sleeve. “Oh no you don’t,” Ryuu muttered as he saw Nyo’s gaze hovering over another fish stall. “You’ve had enough, you stupid addict.”

“Oh c’mon…” Nyo whined. “He’s barely even paying attention. Look!” The silver headed boy gestured pleadingly. “It’d be easier than taking candy from a baby; what could go wrong!?”

“Oh you did not just say that...” Ryuu groaned as he palmed his face.

Unfortunately for the purple eyed boy, habit dictated that he palm his face with his right hand, which also happened to be the hand he was using to grab Nyo’s sleeve. The moment Ryuuto let go of the kurohyou member, Nyo zipped off towards the stall, somehow managing to melt into the crowd despite his haste.

Resigned to his fate, Ryuu followed at a far more sedate pace, keeping a decent distance away from the stall to afford himself a head start if things turned pear shaped. He loved his friend like a brother, but sometimes he wished that the young assassin would take their mutual light-fingered escapades a little more seriously.

If they weren’t careful they really would get caught one of these days.

Pins

Author: Seth

"A bauble, little more, but still it was another stitch in the tapestry of their lives.
A testament to the things they'd been through, and the relationship they shared."

A temperamental flurry of sparkling stars fell through the stratosphere, weaving an enchanting pattern upon the heavens. Truly an even that would remain in one’s soul for the rest of their life.

A pity that it had so few admirers.

“Inferno, what are you doing?” Aurora asked her friend who was staring speculatively into the blue, midday sky.

The tsumejin shook his head. “Recognition.” He replied without further explanation, walking to catch up with the patiently waiting roujin.

Aurora tilted her head quizzically. Glory wasn’t exactly one of Inferno’s top priorities, and so the response made her curious.

She didn’t pry further. Her fiery headed companion knew her well enough to hear her silent question, and he would answer on his own if she let him. That is, if he answered. Sometimes he didn’t, and that was all right too. Everyone had the right to keep their thoughts to themselves if they so desired.

The pair wandered leisurely through the teeming bazaar, wrapped up so far in their own little personal bubble that the bustling crowds about them may as well have not existed. Every now and then one of them would stop at one stall or another and pick up some item that caught their fancy or that their little trio required.

“Suppose no one ever understands what we’ve done?” The grey eyed teen asked lightly after a few minutes. “How would you feel?” He stopped at a small table over which spilled an incredible array of jewellery (literally).

Aurora paused and bit her lower lip as she thought. “I… don’t know. It’s the right thing to do; I’ve never really thought about it.” She smiled wanly as she looked at her companion who was browsing the stall. “I might feel a little… cheated I guess, but not too much.” She admitted.

Inferno gently picked up a burnished bronze hair pin out of the pile, looking at it critically for a moment before paying the vendor for the hair ornament.

“Because at least one person knows what you did?” He asked, smiling softly as he placed the pin in Aurora’s hand.

Aurora looked at the gleaming ornament for a moment before matching her friend’s pleasant expression. “Yeah,” The roujin replied, letting down her aqua hair before pinning it back up once again, two pins to hold it up now, just as it used to be. “As long as someone knows.”

Voices

Author: Malik


She seemed to be floating in the dark. Couldn't see a darned thing, but she could hear voices, calling out one by one. There was no need to see anyways, they were very familiar voices. She didn't need her eyes to know exactly how they'd look.

A shrill, anxious cry, "Naebeeeean!" There was no mistaking that particular variant of her name. Fuu. Brows furrowed, eyes wide, no doubt she wanted something.

"Bean." A smooth, flat tone. Ryuu. An impassive face with a hint of a smirk that only those who knew him well would notice.

"Bean-sama!" A clear, resounding voice. Haru. That stupidly selfless, frustratingly cheerful busybody. Sparkling eyes, contagious grin.

"Bean-sama~" Same words, vastly different tone. A malicious twist at the end that only Cain could produce. The twinkle in his eyes promised some sort of hidden agenda.

"Oi, Ebi!" Stupid Kitsuno, you're as short as I am. Who are you calling a shrimp?

"Nae-chan..." A lower, controlled voice. Shin. Piercing green eyes and a soft smile.

"Onee-san!" My shy brother, a tentative smile on his face.

"Onee-san, please!" Oh? He's not smiling. His voice was quavering. Kaizu, why are you crying?

"Onee-san, please! Please! Open your eyes!"

Drive

Author: Soul

The chilling air made the boy tremble. He didn’t mind the cold. He didn’t mind the late hour. He was trained for this; a child taken from his family to become a soldier. This was a war. People do not have time to think about trivial things at a time of war. Everyone feels pain, everyone loses someone. Even if one person dies, it is a death that will affect many.

He didn’t doubt entering the almost destroyed construction of stone and leaves, his silver hair shining against the moon before being absorbed by darkness. The air became colder as he entered the shadows, and an unusual wind his the boy’s body.

Quiet as a shadow, the boy made his way through the half falling hallways and passages. His thoughts always got the best of him on these missions, but he knew he had to continue this. The drive kept moving him forward; it was always a kill or be killed situation. Just like in every war. It is a sad feeling, but people tend to get used to it.

Hearing something move inside the biggest chamber in the infernal castle of rock and dirt, Nyo, always the playful person in the Lunar Corps, launched with a war cry towards his enemy, and plunged his spear into his chest, falling on top of the other male as the latter let out a groan.

His heart skipped a beat. His friend, his first friend, was there, right underneath him, simply staring at him; not fighting back, nor talking, just there, an expressionless look in his eyes.

Nyo’s hands trembled for the first time in years as he stared down at Ryuu. He waited. Waited for the boy to react, to defend himself, to attack him. But that moment never came.

“Fight back! Don't make me do this!” yelled the taller male. His voice was full of fear and choked sobs. Full of regret. “Please… don’t make me do this.”

Ryuu simply raised his hand and squeezed his friend’s arm, a sign of forgiveness, of understanding. Of sympathy. Nyo watched in horror as the hand touching him fell limply besides the shorter boy.

The silver-haired teen allowed his tears to fall, as he raised to his feet and threw the spear on the ground with an angry scream; he was angry at the people who ordered him to come here, angry at himself for not being more careful. Now sobbing openly, he leaned down once more to hug the person that had accepted him despite their differences, the person that was to always be in his heart.

This was meant to happen. A friend dying in the hands of a friend. Everything was due to the war. War made people do terrible things, and when two people of opposites sides know each other, it is never to end nicely.

Those were the thoughts rounding Niyou’s head when, for the first time, he allowed himself to be held by Tenrou while he cried in unimaginable pain. In secret, in secret from the authorities, in secret of the whole world. Always in secret. This was his life.

Past

Author: Seth

"Reminisce about the past all you want, there's no going back to the way it once was."

Twirling her knife expertly in idle boredom, Kyuusei sectioned what remained of her tuna casserole with an artistic flair derived from simply having nothing better to do. Popping one of the slices into her mouth, the girl rested her chin on the palm of her hand and read the mission briefing, her amethyst-like eyes lazy and half-lidded.

Every mission it was the same song and dance, only it seemed to get longer each time through – she assured herself – no fault of her own.

Sneak into the city; do not rob half of its occupants blind on the way in (She was still pretty proud of that one; she’d rubbed it in Tatsuen’s face for weeks). Skulk around and gather information. Do not get lured into obvious traps (It was a freaking all you can eat buffet at the Ice Shark sushi bar, and there had been blue-fin tuna on the menu; how was she supposed to have argued with that?!), do not deface public property (That statue was ugly in the first place; the monocle and moustache had been improvements), and do hunt down the local magistrate so you can ‘kick his ass’ (She was of the firm belief that the brass was being way too sensitive on this one. Surely Ravage must understand the need to deliver a righteous butt whooping; anyways, the overweight peacock of a man in question had been a prick.), even if he was a prick (Oh). Extract herself from the city; do not rob the other half of its occupants blind on the way out (In her defence, she’d generously decided to leave that beggar by the gate alone). Report back to base in the most efficient and unobtrusive manner possible (Evidently they’d learned their lesson the last time ‘Straight back to base’ had led her through a couple of nicely padded banks.).

Rules, rules, rules, rules! The things seemed to multiply and grow like a fungus, rapidly suffocating their freedom to live their lives as they wished. But then there weren’t alone anymore, were they now? Now their actions reflected on an organization that was thousands strong.

Sighing, Kyuusei crushed her orders with a lethargic vindictiveness that nevertheless failed to truly reach her heart. Sometimes she wished everything could go back to the way it used to be; just her, Tatsuen, and nobody to answer to but themselves. Two twins and the world as their oyster.

Had it really ever been as ideal as all that?

Spearing another section of tuna casserole on her fork, Kyuusei stared at it intensely.

No, she concluded, as she always did whenever this particular bit of nostalgia snuck up on her, it hadn’t. Before, they didn’t have the guarantee of three square meals per day. Before, they were always on the run; never having their own rooms to come back to, night after night. Before, they’d had no company save their own and that of complete strangers.

Smiling, Kyuusei popped the piece of casserole into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Perhaps, the silvery headed thief mused, under certain circumstances, freedom was overrated.

Wishful

Author: Seth


Well this didn’t bode well.

Rai’s morning hadn’t exactly started peachily. For one he hadn’t bothered to take his arm off the previous night, and waking up to the backlash ensured that he wasn’t the cheeriest camper first thing in the morning. On top of that, he was still tired, but then he was always tired these days; not that that fact did much to lighten his rather black mood. If anything, it made it worse.

And then there was this.

Groggily sliding open his steel door, Rai was about to take a shuffling step forward when he beheld an odd sight. A length of string was running pell-mell down the hall outside of his room. Blearily following the trailing thread, the scarred panthryan’s gaze eventually landed upon his partner’s door, under which the string ran.

Rai rubbed his face and briefly considered leaving the whole untouched; it was too early in the morning for this… Despite these fleeting fancies, Rai soon found himself standing in front of Shadow’s door. The string was clear enough evidence that Shadow was up to something, and leaving the girl to her own devices was remarkably similar to leaving a lit fuse alone and hoping for the best. Doing so almost unfailingly resulted in an intense three way mix of disbelief, horror, and regret, accompanied by a fervent promise of ‘Never again…’

Reaching forward, Rai rapped the door firmly; he’d learned well enough that knocking was always a good idea. No answer came. Frowning, the soldier knocked again. When a reply again failed to come Rai stood beside the door and swiftly slid it open. No sense putting himself deeper into harm’s way than necessary after all.

The ex-rebel’s wariness turned out to be unnecessary as no objects (sharp and pointy or otherwise) came flying ungainly out of Shadow’s room. Not entirely reassured, Rai warily stuck his head around the frame and saw Shadow… sewing? The golden eyed man blinked a few times. The scene didn’t go away. Yes, that was most definitely his partner with a needle in her hand, and it did indeed look like some kind of object was forming under her fingers, though he couldn’t tell what.

“Shadow?” Rai asked hesitantly, still baffled by the sight in front of him.

So engrossed with her task was the blue haired girl that she paid her friend’s inquisition as much heed as she’d paid the insistent knocking on her door.

“Hey, Shadow?” Rai tried again, this time waving his mechanical hand gingerly past her eyes.

Shadow squeaked and reflexively stabbed Rai’s hand with the needle.

“Well that was uncalled for.” He frowned in amusement as he tried his best to suppress a grin. “Whatever did my poor hand ever do to deserve such harsh treatment?” The once-Royal Guard deftly pulled the needle from the wrist of the metallic appendage, holding it out to his partner.

“You surprised me.” Shadow stated the obvious, accepting her needle back, her voice half indignant, half chagrined.

“So what’s so important that you didn’t notice me sneaking up on you?” Rai asked leaning forward.

“This!” Shadow held up the odd bundle of fabric enthusiastically, unmindful of the gentle chastisement in Rai’s voice. “Ain’t it awesome!?”

Rai peered owlishly at the hodgepodge of yellow fabric and stuffing, and quickly gave up trying to match its image with the image of what he knew it was supposed to be.

“But why are you making a banana plushy?” Rai looked up at his friend. “I didn’t even know you could sew.”

“Raine’s teachin’ me!” Shadow chirped, happy that Rai could tell what her stuffy was supposed to be.

“It’s... for a friend.” The blue haired girl admitted, looking oddly crestfallen for a moment. “But I dunno if I’ll ever be able to give it to her…” She played with the pudgy toy wistfully.

“How come?” Rai asked, now slightly concerned. He hoped there was an innocent enough reason that Shadow couldn’t give her friend the gift.

“You wouldn’t believe me.” Shadow replied simply, and refused to say any more on the subject, no matter how much Rai tried.

An offer to help her deliver the small plushy to the intended recipient only netted the silver headed man an amused laugh that sounded oddly alien coming from Shadow’s mouth. She did, however, accept a promise from him to give it to her friend if she ever gave up, though Rai felt as if she were only humouring him; another sentiment that felt strange coming from the grey eyed girl. The amused giggle that followed only cemented the feeling.

Years later, as Rai stood staring at a tall glass cylinder, he found himself laughing that same amused laugh for reasons that were at the same time identical and oh so different.

He supposed he should be grateful that he could fulfil at least one of his closest companion’s wishes, small and sentimental though it was.