The Tale of Bill and Justice Man
If Goura could name one flaw in his younger brother, it would be restlessness. This was going to be a long night…
Set pre-series, but I'm not really sure how old Yumoto is supposed to be here. I wrote him as being either in his last year of middle school or just started high school... I hope he doesn't come across as too juvenile.
...Also the, uh, stylistic suck is very intentional *hides*
Somehow, Goura knew he would find Yumoto wide-awake that night. He had developed an instinct for this kind of thing long ago and like all good older brothers, he knew to act on them. Yumoto lay on his stomach, in his futon, with a book spread out before him, illuminated by a flashlight. He had a wide grin on his face and hummed softly to himself as he turned the pages.
"Yumoto," Goura said in a flat tone, alerting his brother to the fact that he'd been caught. Yumoto turned around sheepishly, holding the flashlight under his chin.
"Hi An-chan," he said.
"It's late," his brother gestured to window and the dark starry sky it showed, "We have a rule." He referred, of course, to the flashlight. His brother had always been blessed with good health and an abundance of energy. There was no need to ruin that by straining his eyes by reading in the dark.
Yumoto closed the book, but he didn't shut off the flashlight. "But An-chan, if I turned on the light, you would have noticed it."
"I noticed anyway," Goura reminded him, "Why aren't you sleeping?"
"I'm not tired yet," Yumoto replied with a bright smile, and even brighter eyes that showed no sign of drowsiness, despite the late hour.
Goura sighed. If he could name one flaw in his younger brother, it would be restlessness. Yumoto was always very spirited, and while that was great usually—Goura loved nothing more than to see his brother so happy—it was an absolute pain when it came to making sure he went to bed at a reasonable hour. His teachers often complained about him sleeping in class, and more than a few times did they hint that it may be due to too much leniency at home. While Goura had no desire to fight with them on this (and really, there was nothing he could do about Yumoto's inattentiveness in school), he did agree on one point.
Bedtimes were to be strictly enforced.
That meant no reading with the lights on (because he'd never get tired in a well-lit room), and no arguing with An-chan. Normally, there wasn't much trouble with this. Once Yumoto grew tired, he could fall asleep standing, but then there were nights like this.
"Alright," Goura walked over to him and sat down beside his futon, "What can I do to make you feel tired? Warm milk? Counting Sheep?"
"Oh that reminds me, did you know there are endangered species of sheep?" Yumoto asked, in a tone that clearly indicated that Goura should press further.
"Really?"
"Yeah! It says so in this book," Yumoto held up the book he'd been reading. Goura's eyes narrowed just a tiny bit as he recognized it. It was a book on endangered species he'd bought several years ago, after seeing that it contained a fairly detailed entry on one particular animal. He'd never read it in fully though. The bookmark he'd placed could still be seen sticking out slightly; probably still on the same page too.
"There's this sheep called the Boreray in Scotland. It's said to be very rare. And the ewes have horns just like the rams," Yumoto continued, listing several facts that Goura did his best to listen to, though he knew he would probably forget them by morning. He realized he needed to steer the topic away to something else quickly. Yumoto could—and would spend hours on a topic that interested him in.
"Yumoto, that's enough for now," Goura chided, "We can discuss this more in the morning."
"Oh, okay," Yumoto agreed. Goura decided to skim through the book again before then, so he could at least keep up when the rapid barrage of trivia began.
Counting sheep was out of the question at any rate. And Goura didn't dare bring up milk again, in case there were endangered cows too.
"Now then, are you tired yet?"
"Not a bit."
"You have school in the morning. You need to sleep."
"I'll just sleep in cla—I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Yumoto laughed nervously, as his brother's glare bore into him. "Ah An-chan, I thought of something. How about a story?"
"A…story." Goura repeated the word uneasily, "Like when you were younger?"
"Yeah, your stories always put me to sleep!" Yumoto exclaimed, and then thinking over what he'd said, added, "Not because they were dull though! They weren't!"
They were. Goura's stories only came in that flavor: dull. Rather than relying on storybooks that Yumoto had read a dozen times, he preferred to make his own up. Unfortunately, he just wasn't any good at it. He'd heard that the best stories were the ones that came from personal experience, but his personal experiences didn't go far beyond the bathhouse and chopping wood.
Although, vaguely, he recalled a particular favorite of his about the proper way to chop wood. He supposed maybe he could tell that one.
"Ah you're thinking of the wood chopping story aren't you?" Yumoto watched his face carefully, "That's no fun. I've heard it a hundred times already."
"The idea is to tire you out. For all intents and purposes—
"I want a new story," Yumoto insisted, "Something with lots of action and adventure. Oh, and aliens!"
Goura frowned. "Why aliens?"
"It'd be cool," Yumoto grinned, "And the other night, there was this sci-fi movie where—
"Aliens, got it," Goura said. He thought about it for a moment. Well, it wasn't like he didn't have some personal experience on that front—not that Yumoto needed to know anything about it. But he supposed it wouldn't be too bad if he used one of those stories. If he cut out all of the irrelevant bits, it'd be nonsensical enough, anyway.
"Okay," Goura took a deep breath, "I'll try. But you have to go to sleep afterwards."
Yumoto nodded and made himself comfortable.
"Where should I begin? Does "Once upon a time" work?"
"Sure. The beginning's not that important anyway."
"Right. Once upon a time…
Once upon a time, there was an ordinary…woodcutter. Ordinary meaning that he had no special powers, or secret legacies, or was involved in any secret prophecies. He wasn't a chosen one, he wasn't anyone remarkable, he wasn't even tall.
He was just a woodcutter.
The woodcutter lived an ordinary woodcutting life, and had no idea that he would become the center of a universal plot, in which aliens tried to destroy the Earth.
"I thought you said he wasn't a chosen one," Yumoto suddenly interrupted, tilting his head.
"He wasn't."
"But he became the center of the alien plot."
"Yes, by accident."
It all began when the ordinary woodcutter was walking home one day. He had a small cottage deep in the woods. That day he had delivered all of his chopped wood to his customers in the village, and since it was getting late, it was time to go home.
As he walked though, a large hole opened up in the sky, and out of it came… an alien shoebill.
"An alien shoebill?" Yumoto frowned, "How do you know it was an alien?"
"Well for one, it could talk," Goura explained.
"Animals talk in stories all the time. That doesn't make them aliens."
"…It was blue."
"But—
"Sky blue. Very unnaturally sky blue."
"Okay, okay, a blue alien shoebill," Yumoto sighed, "But you know An-chan, a color like pink would have probably been more convincing."
"I'll keep that in mind. Can I continue now?"
"Yes."
The shoebill—
"What was his name?" Yumoto interrupted two words later.
"Whose name?"
"The shoebill's."
Goura paused. He didn't think Yumoto would be pleased with a name like "Hey, you!" or "Bird."
"…Bill."
"Bill the shoebill?"
"Yes. Now stop interrupting."
Bill was an alien from an unpronounceable planet, sent down to Earth to find someone who could help him stop a major threat.
Another alien had infiltrated the Earth and started turning humans into monsters, in hopes of making them turn on each other and destroy the world. Bill wanted to find a super strong man, with a powerful heart and a love of justice.
Instead he found the ordinary woodcutter.
When the student heard him speak, he knew he couldn't let him go. There were rules about these things, you see. Aliens resembling Earthly animals had to maintain the illusion of earthly animals. Or stuffed toys. Or inanimate objects. Anything really. They could only reveal themselves to those who were involved in whatever it was they were up to.
Anyway, Bill the shoebill said, "I need your help. The Earth is in great danger!"
And so, with the aid of an alien brooch, the ordinary woodcutter became a powerful hero known as Justice Man!
Yumoto burst out laughing. "Justice Man?" he asked.
Goura frowned. "Is that a bad name?"
"No, no," the giggles continued, "It's just very… well it definitely brings to mind a super strong man, with a powerful heart and a love of justice."
"Yes."
"But how about a name like Samurai Fla—
"No that wouldn't be fitting at all," Goura shook his head, "For one, samurai use swords and spears. Justice Man uses an axe."
"Because he's a woodcutter?" Yumoto stopped laughing and looked at Goura with a glint in his eye.
"Yes. The axe he always used for chopping wood became as big as him when he first transformed," Goura explained.
"He transforms? Wow," Yumoto's eyes shone, "So then what does he look like? Does he get a cool costume?"
"I guess," Goura thought about the white somewhat frilly attire. And the buttons. And coattails. Goura much preferred his humble T-shirt and shorts. "It doesn't matter though."
Yumoto considered it and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's so cool how the ordinary woodcutter accepted this so easily."
"Well, when you're told the Earth will be destroyed," Goura pat the top of his brother's head, "You realize there are things you have to protect."
Justice Man was only ever good at chopping wood before. He was specifically known as a man who was only good at chopping wood. But despite that, he was very popular among the villagers, who looked up to him and relied on him to get their wood delivered.
For those villagers, he would fight the alien threat.
Justice Man began to patrol the village nightly. Every night he would sharpen his axe—the one as big as him—and then make his rounds.
Whenever the monsters would show up, with a chop of his mighty axe, he would cut through their shells and release the villagers trapped inside.
"Incidentally, the villagers were the ones who nicknamed him Justice Man," Goura suddenly said, "I just told it to you earlier for convenience."
"Oh, okay."
Justice Man quickly grew to be a household name. Everyone wondered who the mysterious hero was.
Meanwhile, the enemy aliens were growing frustrated. They came to Earth to see it destroyed, but instead, every one of their monsters was being defeated. They were running out of time too. The… kings of the alien planet were very impatient. They weren't impressed by their underling's constant failures, and wanted to see the Earth destroyed quickly.
The kings gave their underling one final chance to redeem himself. He was to challenge Justice Man and Bill directly with Earth as their prize. If Justice Man won, the alien would go back to his planet and never return.
One night, a letter appeared on the door of Justice Man's cottage
The alien leader declared that he would face Justice Man atop the highest mountain in the village. Justice Man sharpened his axe, and left.
Of course, the journey up the mountain was full of trails. The alien leader sent out many of his minions and challenges to get in Justice Man's way. But Justice Man had nothing to fear and cleared them effortlessly.
When he reached the top—
"An-chan," Yumoto was unimpressed, "You can't just skip the best part like that."
"What?" Goura frowned.
"The challenges," Yumoto clarified, "What kind of challenges were they?"
"Oh, um…" Goura's brow furrowed in deep thought. Trials just seemed like something a hero had to face before confronting the final boss. But with Yumoto watching him so expectantly, he didn't want to admit that he was just trying to sound cool. "Like a contest of strength… and such."
"Yeah, yeah?"
"And, um, thick forests for Justice Man to cut down before he reached the top," Goura realized his mistake when he saw Yumoto's frown deepen and hastily added, "Artificial forests created specifically by the alien for this challenge. As soon as Justice Man found his way out of the maze of trees, the whole thing disappeared. It was all an illusion."
"Okay, and then?"
"There have to be more?"
"There are usually at least three right?" Yumoto shrugged, "Oh what was Bill doing? Could he just fly to the top?"
"He could, but his place was by Justice Man's side," Goura explained, "Justice Man fought the monsters, Bill provided all of the explanations." And nagging, he added mentally.
After passing through the forest of illusions, scaling the side of a mountain, and um… answering all of the Riddle Monster's riddles, Justice Man finally reached the top.
The enemy alien awaited him, ready for battle. The stakes were clear. Both sides were ready for battle.
And so it began. Fists and axe clashed many times. Both battlers were strong and determined to have their way. The battle lasted three days and three nights, but finally the enemy alien was defeated. He gathered all his crew and all of his alien artifacts and promised to never return to the Earth again.
Peace was restored.
"And Justice Man and Bill?"
"I'm getting to that."
With the enemy gone, Justice Man's powers were no longer needed. He returned his transformation brooch to Bill, who went back to his own planet, promising to never forget him. The only thing he'd kept was his axe, which had gone back to its normal size.
And so the Earth was saved and Justice Man went back to being an ordinary woodcutter.
The end.
No sooner had he said those words, Yumoto yawned. "That was a nice story," he said, his words slightly slurred.
"Thank you," Goura said, "Now sleep."
Yumoto nodded and pulled his blanket over himself. "Thanks An-chan. Good night."
"Pleasant dreams," Goura waited for his brother to fully fall asleep (it really was amazing how fast he could doze off when he wanted to) and then retrieved the endangered species book and the flashlight, and quietly left the room.
A sense of nostalgia overcame him and he suddenly opened the book to the bookmarked page. Sure enough, it was exactly where he'd left it.
Balaeniceps rex- The Shoebill
Goura stared at the page for a moment, and then closed the book. His old partner was hopefully doing well on his home planet.
As for Goura; he had a brother to dote on, a bathhouse to run, and wood to chop.
A/N: *peeks in* Thanks for reading. I really wanted to read some cute Hakone siblings fluff but couldn't find anything so I thought I'd try writing it myself... *sigh*
I meant to have this up a few days ago but er... anyway kinda funny that the Hakone bros duet was released today too (I was listening to the Enatsu duet when writing the last couple of scenes. I imagine that if I'd actually listened to "Oh my An-chan" while writing, I would have gotten thrown out of my school's laptop lounge for laughing too hard.)
Goura was really difficult to write. I feel like there a bit of a thin line between him being Yumoto's stoic caretaker and him being just as quirky as Yumoto himself. I hope I was able to capture that at least a little ^^"
(Also I gave him a brooch because that's what Magical Girls used back in the day ;))
(Also, the name "Justice Man" was intentionally chosen because of how silly it sounds (It's perfect for a fairytale hero though, I think ^^"). I'm so sorry An-chan!)
Till next fic :)