Moko-Chan: Big surprise for all of you! I'm currently translating Vol 5.5! This is the short story that was bundled with the HataMaou Bluray!
pika318: It's hardly a surprise if you announced it.
Moko-Chan:... …. …. ….^_^ So there's one part in the early part of the novel which was interesting and I thus had an idea.
pika318: *Ignored*
Moko-Chan: This will be a Ashiya/Urushihara friendship fic. Kinda. Kept thinking about this idea and it finally solidified like a gelatin mix put in a fridge.
pika318: Write now -_-
Moko-Chan: DX Okay. I do not own HataMaou or any of the characters. They belong to Satoshi Wagahara.
One shot: Motion Sickness
It was the end of August, after the Obon Festival. The Demon trio, Maou Sadao, Ashiya Shiro and Urushihara Hanzo, have left their home, the Demon Fortress, at Sasazuka Villa Rosa to go to the farm owned by Chiho's relatives all the way in Nagano to help out.
Chiho's mother, Sasaki Riho was in charge of driving Chiho and the three demons all the way to Nagano. However, the long ride was apparently too much for Urushihara to take.
"Urushihara-san, there's a washroom in that direction if you need it." Chiho said as she opened the car door once her mother had stopped the car outside the Lake Suwa Service Area. She held onto Urushihara's upper arm and helped him out of the car.
"Seriously, Urushihara, stand properly, don't trouble Sasaki-san over trivial things like this. You weren't like this in Choshi, right?" A harsh voice snapped. Ashiya stepped out of the front passenger seat and was looking visibly annoyed. He took one step towards Urushihara and grabbed his other arm roughly.
"My apologies, Sasaki-san. You don't have to take care of a useless person like him." Ashiya said grumpily. Chiho released her grip and gave a troubled smile.
"It's really nothing much…." Chiho started saying but Ashiya was already dragging Urushihara away towards the direction of the toilet.
"Do, don't shake me so much…" Urushihara mumbled weakly, his face still ashen. Ashiya ignored the protests and continued walking at his own pace.
While watching their retreating backs, Maou could not help but sigh.
"Sorry you had to see something like that. That guy is really…" Maou shrugged his shoulders while saying in an apologetic tone.
"No, no. It's not that strange to get motion sickness especially if you're not used to such long rides. I also heard that you're more likely to get motion sickness when you're hungry. Shall we go to the food court to eat?" Riho asked, dismissing Maou's apologies in a kind manner.
"Alright. Hey, Ashiya, we're going in first!" Maou nodded and then turned in Ashiya's direction and shouted. Ashiya raised a hand, indicating that he got the message. Riho, Chiho and Maou then entered the main building of Lake Suwa's service area.
The male washroom was surprisingly and fortunately clean despite the high volume it had to handle on a daily basis. There were two cubicles, five sinks and eight urinals along the wall. At the current moment, there was only one other person in the washroom.
"Can't you ever do anything without giving us trouble?" Ashiya grumbled angrily as he pulled the shorter demon to the cubicles. The man who was washing his hands at the sink lifted his head curiously to look at the duo when he heard Ashiya talking. Urushihara only responded by jerking his arm out of Ashiya's grasp and shakily walking into the cubicle. The door closed and Ashiya stood outside it with his arms crossed.
That's when he started hearing retching noises. Ashiya put a hand to his forehead and sighed deeply.
I can't believe it. Seriously? A demon getting car sick of all things?
"Car sick?" The man who was washing his hands asked. There was no sound of concern in his voice. He seemed to just be making small talk. Ashiya frowned at the nosiness of the stranger but still responded in the most friendly tone he could muster.
"Yes. We haven't taken such a long trip before."
"Hahaha...my son's like this too. Seems like children can't tolerate long rides very well." The man commented as he proceeded to dry his hands.
He's anything but a child! Ashiya thought about the ridiculousness of the comment made by the stranger who had no idea of the context. The fallen angel who was having trouble with keeping his stomach contents down was far older than the other people in the same car put together.
"Don't worry, they'll grow out of it. At least, that's what I heard." The man continued saying. Then with a slight nod, he turned and walked out of the washroom.
Now the only sound left was Urushihara coughing and retching again.
"And to think you actually were so skillful when it comes to flying…" Ashiya said, intentionally making it loud enough for Urushihara to hear. When they were still in Ente Isla, Ashiya himself had witnessed the amazing and agile maneuvers that Urushihara could do. Even Camio, who was a bird demon built for flying, was impressed.
Approximately 250 years ago…
"Hey Alsiel, do you want to try riding on a dragon?" Satan asked the armored demon, formerly the clan leader of the Iron Scorpion clan, a clan that specialises in strong magic and high defense.
"A dragon?" Alsiel asked. Although his armored face made it slightly difficult to read his emotions, he was actually surprised.
"Yeah, you know what a dragon is. You saw me ride one before, remember? The time when I went to first visit you?" Satan continued speaking enthusiastically, trying to jog the older demon's memory.
"Ah, that time. Why would I need to ride a dragon?" Alsiel asked.
"Because it's convenient! You can't keep depending on your feet for travel! Think about how much time and energy it would save! Come on, I think Camio has a dragon that would suit you." Without waiting for a reply from Alsiel, Satan jogged off towards the makeshift stables where the dragons were tied down.
"Camio, I brought Alsiel over. So which beast is it?" Satan spoke to an aged bird demon with an excited grin. Camio raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't think he would agree to it." Camio glanced at Alsiel's uninterested face. Alsiel stared back icily.
"Satan told me about the Flying Dragon license you established. I got curious as to what it is." Alsiel said. Along the way here, Satan also happily explained the fun of riding a dragon and all of its potential advantages.
"I see...anyway, the beast is over there." Camio pointed at a large black reptilian creature. Like Alsiel, its entire body was covered in a jet black shell. It only had two clawed back limbs which were now hunched like a rabbit's hind feet. The front limbs were replaced by two massive scaly wings. The creature tilted its snake like neck and looked directly at the group.
"That is a Black-scaled wyvern. They're not very fast fliers but they can fly for long distances and their armored skin makes them highly valuable in a battle. Hard to take down you know." Camio started explaining as the trio walked nearer to the wyvern. Upon a closer inspection, Alsiel noticed there was a metal saddle on the wyvern's back. Inside its mouth was a metal-like bit and metal chains were extending from the bits.
"Not using manticore hide, Camio?" Satan asked curiously, pointing at a smaller green dragon which had leather strips hanging from the bit in its jaws.
"We tried. The scales around the wyvern's neck are a bit rough. After a bit of careless handling, they tend to snap." Camio explained. Then he turned to Alsiel.
"And for that same reason, I think only members of the Iron Scorpion clan are able to ride this one safely."
"I see…" Alsiel muttered expressionlessly. He cautiously got closer to the wyvern.
"Don't worry, the dragons are quite tame. We raised them shortly after they hatched." Satan said proudly.
"Yes. Do try getting on it. Alsiel." Camio encouraged.
Alsiel looked at the wyvern's large head and the wyvern stared back. Then it lowered its head nearer to the ground.
"I guess that means it accepts?" Alsiel asked as he put one clawed foot into the stirrup. With a deft motion, he sat on the saddle properly and grabbed hold of the metal reins.
"Yeah." Satan nodded. Then with a similar motion, he also mounted the smaller dragon which was nearby.
"Alright, Camio, we're going for a bit of a test ride!"
"Do be careful, both of you."
Camio looked up into the sky and used his eyes to trace the movements of the two dragons in the air. As he was focused on his targets, he did not notice when someone landed behind him.
"I don't see what's so fun about flying on those things. It's disgusting."
"Eck! Lucifer! Do not surprise me like that!" Camio wheeled around when he heard the young voice.
"You're just too senile to notice your surroundings, Old bird." Lucifer snidely commented with a smirk.
"Why you...You won't understand since you can fly yourself. And it's not about fun. It's about the practicality of going long distances without draining too much energy." Camio explained while glaring at the other demon.
"Oh...then why does it seem like Satan is just taking the dragons flying for fun?"
"That brat...I'll give him a good lecture later." Camio made a mental note to make Satan kneel and listen to his words for approximately two hours.
"So you're letting that black armored bastard take the black wyvern huh…"
"You still hold a grudge against Alsiel?" Camio asked, noticing the hint of distaste in Lucifer's voice.
"Tch. He used underhanded tactics and almost killed me." Lucifer looked away from Camio's gaze and grumbled.
"It was a legit fight for power, Lucifer. Did you think that Alsiel would throw a white flag down and follow quietly?" Camio shook his head while saying.
"Whatever, don't expect me to like him…" Lucifer looked up into the sky as well, also staring at the two flying dragons. Then his eyes widened.
"Tch!"
"Huh? What is it, Lucifer?" Camio heard Lucifer express a hiss of frustration and turned to look at his face. Then he noticed Lucifer frowning.
"Lucifer?"
Lucifer did not respond to Camio's question and suddenly took off into the air, towards the two flying dragons.
"I'm impressed. You can actually control your wyvern quite well." Satan said in awe. He had thought he might have to give Alsiel some pointers during the test ride but the armored demon seemed to be doing just fine.
"It's easier than I thought." Alsiel commented. Actually, he had thought he would have trouble as well as he had a hard time imagining how he was going to get the wyvern to go the direction he wanted to. But the metal bar in the wyvern's mouth forced the wyvern to turn whenever he tugged at the reins.
I'm more impressed that this young demon actually thought of such a thing. Alsiel thought as he turned to look at Satan who was flying behind on a green dragon.
Just then Alsiel felt an uncomfortable tingling across the surface of his armored skin. He jumped a bit then looked around. There were large dark clouds around.
"Did you feel that, Satan?"
"Uh yeah. I think we better go down now. Just pull the rein and get the wyvern to circle down slowly." Satan had a worried look on his face. He gently pulled the right leather rein to his own dragon and the dragon made a turn to the right. Alsiel followed suit.
Suddenly, he felt the tingling across his skin again. It was more obvious than the previous one. Then just as the feeling disappeared, the wyvern bucked.
"Urgh!" Alsiel grabbed the metal reins tightly as the wyvern suddenly dropped at a very fast speed.
"Alsiel!" Satan shouted but the strong winds made his voice inaudible.
The wyvern continued thrashing around and speeding towards the ground. Alsiel felt as though his insides were going upwards. He jerked on the reins forcefully trying to get the wyvern to level itself but the wyvern still fought back.
Damn it!
Alsiel's golden eyes glowed as he tried to use telekinesis on the wyvern's head and neck to force it upwards. His efforts made little difference to the situation as the wyvern's thrashing became more vigorous to try to throw him off. The situation was terrible. The panicked wyvern was obviously going to dive straight into the ground. As for Alsiel, who cannot fly, there was no way he could let go. If this goes on, he would hit the ground straight on.
Just then, among the sound of the wind, Alsiel heard a flapping sound. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a black shadow. Before he could orientate himself to the situation, a right hand grabbed the rein. Alsiel turned and saw the black winged demon holding onto the metal rein and yanking it backwards.
"You!"
"Damn it! Go up already!" Lucifer gritted his teeth. There was a vein popping from his forehead from the effort. He braced his feet against the side of the dragon while pulling on the metal reins, his body and wings glowing as he used magic to increase the strength in his arms. Alsiel pulled as well. The wyvern's head finally jerked up and it started going down at a shallower angle but the inertia of the wyvern's mass was still too great.
"Tch!" Alsiel hissed as he could see that there were only a few seconds left to the large lizard impacting the ground. If the wyvern did not hit the ground properly, it would roll over and crush him. The only decision left was to jump off before it contacted the ground. However, to use the narrow stirrup as a base to jump was near to impossible.
Just as Alsiel was flustered over the next course of action, he noticed purple orbs of light around him. Just as quickly as they appeared, a beam shot out from them and he was pulled off the dragon.
And not a moment too soon. A few seconds later, the wyvern landed on the dirt ground on its side with a resounding crash. Alsiel was in mid air for a short while before he himself hit the ground with a thump. He bounced off the ground once and did a few rolls before coming to a stop.
Ow….
Despite the armor, he was still able to feel the impact of coming into contact with a hard surface. He got up shakily, shaking his head to get rid of the slight dizziness he felt. The black wyvern was lying on the ground right in front of him, its wings twitching slightly. As Alsiel got onto his feet, he noticed that the stirrup which was still on his foot, the portion which connected it to the saddle was melted off. He looked around and saw Lucifer on the ground a short distance from himself. The winged demon was on all fours, the ends of his large wings touching the dirt ground. Both he and Lucifer were right in front of the fallen dragon.
And as though the bad luck did not want to end, the massive body of the wyvern started to roll over. Lucifer looked up, his eyes widening in horror as the scaly armor got nearer to him. However, it stopped short just inches from his face. He turned to see Alsiel with his arms lifted up in front of him. There was a slight greenish glow around his clawed arms.
That was close.
With a swing of his arm, the wyvern rolled over to the other side, away from the both of them.
"Oi, Alsiel, Lucifer, are you both okay?!" It was Satan. His green dragon had landed properly on the ground. Satan jumped off the dragon and ran towards the two.
"I'm fine…" Alsiel muttered. Satan had ran to Lucifer's side.
"You took a really hard crash landing just now! Are you okay?" Satan asked frantically, his face pale and sweating.
"I'm fine… It's just that I can't control my flying when I have to use my heat rays at full force at the same time…" Lucifer mumbled as he slowly got up to a standing position. He looked up, straight at Alsiel's face.
Did he...actually look worried?
"Okay...if you say so…I guess if you're fine, then we can go back….?" Satan said, sounding unsure.
"I'm not done yet!" Lucifer suddenly shouted.
"Huh?" Satan asked in a confused manner. Lucifer turned to the horned goat demon and continued to shout.
"Seriously, you idiots who aren't used to flying...don't ever go that high when there's an impending storm! The electricity in the air caused that lizard to freak out!"
"Ah...sorry." Satan said in realisation and apologised guiltily.
"If I wasn't nearby, he would have been dead!" Lucifer jabbed a finger at Alsiel.
"Sorry~~~~" Satan was squeaking now.
Now that Alsiel thought about it, it was true. If Lucifer had not come to try to control the dragon, break the stirrup and pull him off the dragon, he would have either been seriously injured, or in the worst case scenario, dead. But no matter what, he could not think of a reason as to why the winged demon would want to help him, especially with their current tense relationship and bad history.
"Why did you save me?" Alsiel asked.
"Oh man, do you have to ask that now?" Satan grabbed his head with both his claws and started groaning.
"Tch. Satan went through a hell lot of trouble to get you in his army, to the point that some of us almost got killed! If you want to die, do it in a proper battle!" Lucifer scowled at Alsiel. With that he stretched his wings and flew off.
"Ah…" Alsiel wanted to say something else but lost his chance. Meanwhile, Satan was in the background frantically saying things about Camio going to kill him when they returned. Fortunately or unfortunately, they only got a two hour lecture after Camio found them during their way back.
Present day
"How can someone be able to fly like that and still get sick?" Ashiya asked again. There was no reply from the cubicle.
"Urushihara?" Ashiya turned towards the outer wall of the cubicle Urushihara was in.
Uh oh, don't tell me…
Ashiya started knocking on the door of the cubicle.
"Oi, Urushihara, are you alright?"
Still no response.
Don't tell me he fainted or something?!
Just as Ashiya was considering breaking the door down, the cubicle door opened and Urushihara walked out. Though his steps were unsteady, there was a bit more colour to his face.
"Could you just shut up for a while when I'm trying to not puke my guts up? The noise is giving me a headache…" Urushihara muttered, not looking at Ashiya in the eye.
"Ah, sorry about that. You look a bit better already."
"I can't believe I actually had to use whatever remaining magic I have on this…" The smaller demon started to walk towards the sinks to wash his hands. Ashiya silently watched.
"By the way, flying is completely different from riding a car." Urushihara started saying, the annoyance in his tone was obvious.
"Uh, ok, I see."
"Don't you know drivers don't get motion sickness?"
"... ...Urushihara."
"What?" Urushihara snapped.
"Hold your hand out." Ashiya said, while standing next to him.
"Why?" Urushihara asked for a reason but still held his right hand out before getting an answer. Ashiya then grabbed his hand such that his palm was facing upwards and pressed down on his wrist. Urushihara stared at his own wrist for a few seconds before giving the taller demon a bewildered look.
"I saw this on TV. There's an acupressure point here which is suppose to help with relieving nausea when pressed on." Ashiya explained, looking as emotionless as he could.
"Oh."
"Well, did it help?"
"I'm trying to decide if you pressing on that area helped or you holding my hand helped."
Ashiya's eyes narrowed at that statement and he dropped Urushihara's hand immediately.
"Whatever it is, you can try it yourself. Come on, let's not make Demon King-sama and Sasaki-san wait." Ashiya said as he lead the way out of the washroom. As they walked to the inside of the service area, Ashiya slowed down his steps and glanced backwards occasionally to make sure Urushihara was following him.
END
Note: Alsiel addressing Satan as Satan and not Demon King-sama is not a typo. Satan was not declared as the Demon King during the time of the flashback so Alsiel addresses Satan by name.
Moko-chan: it was really difficult to write the dragon part because I had absolutely nothing to base it on. Oh my, I just kept typing this late into the night ^_^"""" hahaha…. My typing gets worse when I'm half asleep.
pika318: JUST SLEEP ALREADY!
Moko-chan: Please read and review.
pika318: Anyway, this is a thought that even though Ashiya sounds harsh and unkind to Urushihara in the novel most of the time, there should be some times when he really does care.
Another note: In vol 0, when Camio offered to get Lucifer a dragon, Lucifer commented that it's disgusting to not fly using his own ability.