The wind rushed overhead as Jonouchi Katsuya lifted the hatch in the ceiling. Gripping the rim of the opening in both hands, he lifted himself out of the train carriage and onto the frost-covered roof. Rolling to one side, he quickly replaced the hatch, sinking it into the hole and leaving him alone on the roof of a speeding train, wind and snow clawing at his body.
He stuck low, knowing that he wouldn't last more than a few seconds on his feet. All it would take would be a particularly strong gust of wind or a misplaced step on the icy metal and he would plunge over the side, down the side of the mountain. Teeth grit as the freezing steel tried to gain purchase on the skin of his face. It was a long journey, and more than once he stopped and prayed as a low hanging tree branch began to speed into view, or an old piece of bridge threatened to scrape him from the train. Counting each carriage that he passed, he finally arrived at his destination.
Jonouchi reached into his pocket, pulling out the tiny camera, wrapped in a protective case, clenching it firmly in one hand as he lent over the side of the train.
The yawning chasm ahead of him gave him a chill far deeper than the winter air could ever hope to achieve. There was a few feet of land at the side of the track before it dropped away into an endless void of grey and white, dizzying the mind and weakening the young man's grip.
Swallowing deep, he continued lowering himself over the edge, gripping hold of a flimsy iron bar at the edge of the roof. The window of the cabin below slowly came into view. Curtains drawn, someone leaning with their back against the glass. Dark clothes, a shock of blonde hair… It was Malik Ishtar, no doubting it. He was talking to someone, a figure lazing on a nearby bed. Jonouchi raised the camera to his eye, lining up a clear shot of the inside of the carriage.
A sudden pressure around his ankles, a momentary sense of dislocation, rushing air, biting cold. He was suddenly upside down, suspended by his ankles in the grip of a giant. He snapped his head up… Down… Looking into the eyes of the monster that had grabbed him.
He was an imposing figure, tall and broad, standing unflinching where Jonouchi had been too afraid to even crouch. He was wrapped in thick robes, insulating him from the cold, golden eyes glaring down over the top of a dark scarf.
"Uh, hi…" Jonouchi tried to sound as charming as possible, difficult considering how much he had to raise his voice to be heard over the rumble of the engines and the roar of the wind. "Commemorative photo?"
He was slammed down onto the roof of the train hard enough that he was sure he had blacked out for a moment. He was suddenly slipping, falling to the side of the train, grasping out madly for anything to get purchase on, his hand encircling a massive boot. Again, that sense of dislocation, of air rushing past his ears as he tumbled downwards. With a sickening lurch, he and his assailant fell from the side of the train, down the side of the mountain.
His hearing returned first, muffled and suppressed though it was. There was a far off crumbling noise. The crunch of thick snow being compacted. Rocks colliding with one another…
The sensation slowly came back to his aching body, bringing pain and a realisation of the biting cold with it. Jonouchi flexed his fingers, finding them half-frozen and buried in snow.
He attempted to open his eyes, finding it the greatest effort he had ever mustered in his life. Each lid felt as though it were being held in place by a monster of impossible strength, keeping him blind. With an audible, agonised noise erupting from his throat, the young man's eyes dragged themselves open.
He was looking at an endless vista of white. A field of snow lay in every direction, trailing off towards the grey horizon, a slow cascade of snowflakes raining from above. Jonouchi could feel the side of the mountain at his back, pressed hard against him, holding him, hard against the back of his skull. The only thing to break up the infinite white was a dark mass a few feet from where he was sitting propped up against the mountain. It was the giant from the train, sprawled out in the snow, face down, right leg bent at an impossible angle, a dark crimson pool forming underneath his left arm.
Jonouchi attempted to pull himself up to his feet and was greeted with an immeasurable pain spreading throughout his abdomen, stopping his heart for a moment and rendering everything he heard into a dull buzzing in his skull. His head snapped down, looking at the dark snow that caked his body, he swept it away with one weak motion of his arm, revealing a mangled mass of man and wood. A tree branch on the fall down had pierced his side, running him through brutally while he had been beaten unconcious on the side of the mountain. The pain was beyond what he had ever contemplated before, bringing thick tears to his eyes that quickly began to freeze.
"Looks like you're in trouble there, little rat." The voice cut through the thudding of Jonouchi's own pulse in his ears. He looked to the wretched mess lying in the snow before him. The giant had turned it's head upwards, looking at him with a dangerously weak smirk plastered over it's face.
"You're one to talk." Jonouchi wasn't shocked by how pathetic his voice sounded. Quite frankly he was only shocked that he could speak at all. It felt as though all the strength had been viciously torn out of his body, the rest of it being frozen out of his system rapidly by his surroundings.
"My part is done." The giant grinned, blood pooling between his teeth.
"Yeah, and that's not all that's done." Jonouchi motioned to the shattered remains of the man's leg.
"I have no more need of this leg."
"Might help you get out of here. Maybe carry you to..." He trailed off, trying to spot any signs of civilisation. None. "Well, away from here."
"My duty was to remove you from the train. That done, I have nothing left to do but wait."
"Wait till we freeze to death."
"Either death will come to claim me, or my master will. Either way, I can do nothing but wait."
"A great attitude there. You always go hurtling off of trains at Malik's command?"
"Do you always climb trains to photograph strangers?"
"Sometimes." Jonouchi chuckled before coughing up a mouthful of gritty blood. "When the pay's good."
"You are a spy?"
"A private investigator... Of sorts." Even in this very unusual circumstance, Jonouchi was loathe to reveal too much information.
"Hunting information as the master hunts vengeance." The giant mused on that for a moment. "Blind to all dangers."
"Yeah, you did kinda come out of nowhere big fella. How does someone your size stay hidden like that?"
"With great difficulty."
Jonouchi chuckled again, finding no blood this time. He wasn't so certain that was a good sign...
"What's your name big guy?"
"Does it matter?"
"Not in the slightest."
There was a long pause. Something crackled overhead.
"Rishid."
"Ah, Malik's brother. I probably should've guessed. And that would make the person in the train carriage-"
"Our sister."
"So it was a family reunion I stumbled onto. Great."
"Of sorts." Rishid winced, spitting a red tooth into the snow. "Who were you taking the photos for?"
"Sorry buddy, code of the trade. I never reveal my client's information."
"Loyal to the end."
"Look who's talking."
The crackle overhead returned. Somewhere a rock tumbled into the snow. A crow cried out.
"You seriously don't have a problem dying for your brother?"
"Does it matter?"
Jonouchi smirked, at least he was in good company. "Not in the slightest."
Silence.
He glanced at the broken figure in the snow. His face was back down again. No movement save for the rustling of his cloak in the mountain wind.
"Rishid?" There was no response. Jonouchi lay his head back against the rock. "Well shit."
He could've sworn that he could see a dark shape coming out of the grey and white. Someone approaching them.
Jonouchi closed his eyes.