This was co-authored with oddeyesight.
Guess who finally overcame writer's block! It's been a while.
I hope you enjoy this AU as much as we do~
Kubera doesn't belong to me, because if it did, Leez would have blue hair and eyes. Or orange. Or yellow. or red. Anything but green.
Making his way to the coffee machine of Mistyshore's Fighter Guild, Saha couldn't help but believe that coffee was undoubtedly one of the Gods' best and most blissful creations.
The time of the fighters' tournament had come back once again, and he went all the way to the water city to join it, even setting down in a hotel in the "muggle" part of the city. The city gathered fighters and admirers from all over the planet, and he honestly hadn't seen so many people at once since the refugee ship arrived in Eloth from Carte.
He knew that his paperwork could wait. He had already done some of it on the airship to here, and he deserved a good cup of coffee to counter the jetlag and the tiredness.
He was here to realize his lifelong dream.
Apart from the hopeless "get buff", of course. His slender body refused to muscle up, whatever he did. He was somewhat physically strong already, but it couldn't seem to show.
He was there to get into the top ten fighters of the tournament.
He had people who wanted him to do the best he could as a fighter. One in particular, he wanted to impress by showing how awesome he was. So that this person could be proud.
And he would.
But- his first priority was the coffee now. When would the damn machine be done?
Ah- there it is!
And just as he was about to reap the prize of his patience, the air cooled a few dozen degrees.
Slowly, he shifted in the direction emitting a dangerous aura.
A glaring, blue-haired teenager was standing there. There was no possible mistake.
"I recommend that you give up this cup of coffee, or the ponytail that is now reaching your shoulders will mysteriously become drastically shorter."
Normally, he would fight verbally for his coffee, and might even wish to escalate it to a physical fight.
But what he saw- what he remembered- was not normal by any definition.
Blood and pain came first, and her-he knew it was she, but it was not quite him who knew. Or was it?
She looked at him, colder than ice, colder than anything he'd seen, felt. Detached. No soul reflected in her empty, pragmatic eyes.
He felt satisfaction somewhat, because he had saved his someone from his enemy- yes, this cold teen was his enemy. His worst enemy, the biggest threat.
Abuser. Liar. Blasphemer.
Murderer.
She was his enemy.
She was dangerous, never mind that these thoughts were not his own, that these memories had never happened-
He fought off the need to shake his head to clear his head, slowly coming back to reality. He could feel his feet on the concrete ground again, but he still felt the gashing wound tearing him apart-
Who? What? Why? When?
Nothing made sense, he had to… He had to remember…
He felt some kind of connection loosen. The vivid images that were so overwhelming before were fading away, and the only analogy he found was as if someone was slowly... stepping away from his consciousness.
Wait! I don't understand!
There was nothing to "understand". Only "forgotten" things to be "remembered". If what exists could disappear, why wouldn't what shouldn't become real?
It was almost gone, wispy images escaping his grasp.
Her name… Her name was...
"Asha Rahiro?!"
Asha froze.
The instant she set foot on Willarv, her name was formally changed to Asha Leez. That is what everyone has called for for the last seven years.
No one but a select few knew the family name she was born with, on this planet. She didn't recognize the man in front her as one of them, with his dark tyrian hair and green-gold eyes. His eyes in particular; she would have remembered these creepy eyes had she known him.
No, it wasn't quite right.
Their color wasn't, on second thought, the thing that was creeping her out. It was something else, something in her very soul that made her shudder. She didn't know why.
She felt as if she had just seen a ghost.
He seemed to be a Quarter, and if his clothing was of any indication, he was a competing fighter.
All of this was thought and analyzed within a second, as she was no one else, after all, other than Asha, the fastest calculator on this planet, as Rao called her.
Just as quick, she regained her composure and prepared an appropriate answer.
"My name is Asha Leez," she said coldly to the man in front of her, "I am not Asha Rahiro, although I am very, very interested in how you knew her."
He stared at her with wide eyes. A quick mixture of emotions - Fear? Terror? Confusion? Understanding?- passed fast in them; too fast for her to identify.
He started speaking rapidly after one aghast second.
"I'm a native of Carte. I used to go to E- to Eos Academy of Magic." He paused and added awkwardly, "I was the student with the lowest Divine Affinity, and I wouldn't have gotten in there if I wasn't a triple Light."
Asha glared at him.
She remembered that humiliating day well, as clear as yesterday, that day she saw all her hard work crumble to dust before her young and naive eyes. All of that simply because she wasn't blessed enough by the Gods to reach her ambitions. Because she wasn't as blessed as the man before her.
Her glare seemed to scare him. Good. That day made her feel pathetic whenever she remembered it, so he should feel pathetic with her. Also, he had yet to move away from the coffee machine, which meant that she wasn't getting her coffee any time soon.
So she just grabbed him and shoved him out of the way.
Or rather, she tried to shove him, because he literally jumped out of the way when she got too close to him.
She stared weirdly at him. She had glared at him, sure, but her glare didn't prompt this kind of jumpy behavior. As a fighter, he should have seen scarier and uglier glares from scarier and uglier creatures. Why did he jump away like she was a legitimate -obvious- threat to him...?
Strange.
She then snapped out of the odd trance he had shoved her into with his weirdness.
She remembered she had no reason to talk to this weirdo. He was out of the way of her delicious, her precious coffee.
She grabbed the hopefully still fuming cup and turned around to leave.
"Ran! It's been too long!"
The brown-haired young man turned to see the man he considered as a brother walk towards him with… children? on his toes. Two were boys, and the third was a girl who had a similar curly hair to him. They all seemed to be purebloods, the oldest one in his mid-teens while the younger brats looked around twelve.
He restrained the need to glomp Rao Leez and whistled.
"You sure have... worked a lot since last time I saw you!"
Teo couldn't restrain a very low groan.
"She's here again." She raised her voice a little, less to be properly heard by her two companions and more to signify that she didn't mind them listening to her complaint. "Last time, I just had the… the flu. Yeah, the flu. These rules are just so unfair with Quarters and Halfs anyway! So what if we have a natural advantage, we're professionals or what-"
"Teo-ssi, you're making excuses," interrupted the man walking beside her.
"... I know."
The young woman sighed again, clutching her beloved sword. Weapons OR magic, it was so unfair that she had to choose! Not that she was any good at magic, but that meant she couldn't give in her whole. All magic, even silent magic and transcendentals, was banned if she were to use a sword, and she'd be lying if she said she was very good bare handed. So, in the tournament, she could only rely on her sword skills, when this wretched witch of a woman could use both her fists and magic however she pleased. The worst was that she didn't need a weapon half the time. That cocky cockroach, though...
Really, the only luck she ever had was to find Elwin and Gandharva.
Mirha was waiting for her older brother when she saw him.
Rao Leez, her savior, back on Carte. He was standing nearby, surrounded by teenagers and tweens. Or was surrounded with them, since two of them had just waved the others away, and he was left standing with a teenager that had a braid and a curly-haired girl.
Seeing that this time was suitable as any, Mirha called for him. "Rao-oppa!"
Rao turned around, happily greeting her. "Who- Why hello there, Mirha, what brings the Priest of Wind all the way from Aeroplateau to here? Is your brother finally joining a tournament?"
"Yes, he is!" Mirha replied, just as happy as him.
Rao then turned to his companions. "Should I introduce you to each other?" He asked, and proceeded to do so, "Leez, Ran, this is Mirha Simon, the Priest of Wind. Her talent in Wind magic is unparalleled on this planet. Mirha, this my daughter, Bera, and my friend Ran Sairofe."
"Nice to meet you," Mirha said politely.
After everyone replied "Nice to meet you too" in a sing-songy voice, Rao left to buy them all ice cream parfaits, leaving the boy and the two girls alone with each other.
"I don't mind you calling me Leez, though." Chirped the youngest of the trio.
"Why? " Mirha asked Leez curiously.
"I wanted to have the last name of my mom," Leez said cheerfully, " so I ask that people call me "Bera Leez-Haias" but they say it's too long… So it ended with the middle part. "
"Really? That's nice!" Mirha replied. She could tell that she would like Leez quite a bit.
"Do we really have to be near this crowd…?" Sagara grumbled to no one in particular.
She hated crowding with so many people. She wouldn't be doing that if she didn't have something important to do. Something she had to bring Cloche and Clophe with her to do.
[How about we go there?] Cloche said, pointing at a slightly less crowded part of the Fighter Guild. [There aren't much people there now, so we can hurry and buy some warm milk for us.]
"Wait." said Sagara.
"There is something… dangerous in that place. Let's wait and go there another time."
Sagara felt a weird chill in the air coming from that direction; the kind she'd rather like to avoid.
Cloche and Clophe looked at each other, then followed the orders of their King.
Rao Leez was a happy man.
And why wouldn't he be? He had a beautiful wife, two darling daughters, and two fine boys he fostered. That's not even mentioning the friends he knew, like the boy (no, not a boy anymore- time flies fast) he considered a brother-
"Welcome back, Rao-oppa!"
-and the girl that called for him right that instant.
He was happy to see that she and Leez were getting along well. After handing them the parfaits he brought them, he said, "Eat as much as you want, kids, I got these for free."
"Eh? How?" Asked Leez.
"The vendor woman fainted when she saw me," he replied on a conversational tone, "and I had to reanimate her. She refused to take any money for the parfait afterwards."
"...Gods, Dad," Leez said, teasingly, "you can't keep going on charming women like that. Should I mention what happened to Mom…?"
Rao sweated slightly, only slightly, remembering Anna's skill as a fighter, and said, "N-no, your mom doesn't need to know this… say, where is Ran?"
"He went to see my brother and Leez's sister," said Mirha, "turns out, both of their love of coffee is a little… over the top?"
"He felt a bit weird talking with us, so he went to find them because our siblings are as old as him." Leez chimed in.
"Well…" Said Rao, "I guess we should go to them, then. I don't think Ran can handle Asha when she's going for her coffee…"
Rao turned and marched to the direction of the coffee machine, thus missing Mirha's flinch when she heard the name "Asha".
