A/N: It's hilarious when The Choten suffers. That's all I gotta say.
Disclaimer: In an alternate reality, I own this series, it has amassed an extensive following both irl and online, and the series peacefully and rightfully ended after 4 seasons and a 90 minute TV movie. This isn't that reality, so I don't own Kaijudo. Sorry, dude.
"Raiden."
"What?"
"Now, now. No need to be defensive. I simply need to ask you a favor."
"…This really the best time?"
"Oh, yes. In fact, I'd say it wouldn't make any sense outside of this little pocket time here. Would you kindly remove your STUBBY LITTLE NAILS FROM MY ANKLE?"
Oh, how things had gone so awry today. Raiden had decided to go off on a mission alone (a bad idea) and follow the Choten (another bad idea), which delved into a massive battle, leaving both sides at an impasse when their creatures both were banished. Of course, they had both used rather large creatures, so, the collateral damage ended up doing them both in.
The two of them were currently hanging off of a crumbling cliff. The Choten was using all of his upper body strength and clutching desperately at the cliff-side to keep himself from falling, and Raiden was busy dangling off one of his legs with a death grip unsurpassed by many Bezerkers.
"What do you want me to do then, fall to my death?!" He asked, clutching the Choten's other leg and steadying himself with them both. "Okay, obvious question. Here's a better one: Why aren't you pulling us up?"
"Oh, I would love to," he replied in a voice that oozed both disgust and annoyance. "Problem is, it appears I have a certain weight dragging me down. And I'll knock off my balance it I try now, but if you insist..."
"Fine, if you're gonna be that way!" Ray groaned, reaching with his fingers to try and grab an unearthed root from the cliff. "There's gotta be some weight we can lose, or maybe we could balance this out, or-"
His sentence was cut off when the root he'd grabbed quickly snapped out, brushing him a little bit backwards. Ray fumbled around to regain his hold, and ended up knocking one off the Choten's 500 dollar dress shoes clean off. Down into the abyss it went, as did a shred of its owner's dignity. Ray could only blankly stare as he watched it disappear. "Uh, sorry about that."
"Raiden." He said calmly. "You have exactly 10 seconds to give me a reason not to kick you off." His grip of the cliff-side tightened as he dug his nails (and tech-gauntlet) deeper into the earth out of pure rage. Ray soon realized that he was in an even deeper predicament than before. Not only was he hanging off a cliff-side fearing for his life, he was hanging off a cliff-side fearing for his life and attached to a rich jerk.
"Because… you'd be blamed for my disappearance?" Ray asked, desperately trying his best to come up with a worthy excuse. "You're better than that? It wouldn't be professional enough? I might survive?"
"If either of us survive this, I can guarantee, it will be a miracle." The Choten replied grimly. And, as if on some sort of morbid cue, the cliff-side that he was currently clinging onto started to crumble and break off. "Oh, dear." He flatly uttered as the boy proceeded to clutch onto his ankles even harder. The chunk of earth then broke off the cliff.
And they fell.
And practically body-slammed onto a much larger and much thicker tree root jutting out the side of the cliff. After they had regained their bearings, they just hung there, breathing heavily as they quietly thanked all the powers that be that miracles (as well as contrivances) existed. After his period of heavy breathing and quiet reverence, Ray softly said "I lost your other shoe."
"I don't mind. You can keep it." The Choten replied, on a voice that sounded like he was on the verge of tears. He cleared his throat, smoothed back his hair, and looked around at his current surroundings. An insufferable brat, a sturdy foothold, a bottomless chasm, and a 50 meter climb up back to safety. All in all, it was absolutely not his day.
"I'm honestly wondering if you have anything better to do other than getting yourself into zany, pointless predicaments from your own stupidity." He said, deeming he had nearly nothing else to lose today. Ray didn't respond, he just sort of looked at him with a confused expression. "I mean, it must be tiring for the Masters, good lord! Constantly disobeying, rebelling, thinking you know what's best until it comes back to haunt you. One of these days, they're just not going to care anymore and happily watch you die because then they won't have to worry about you anymore."
"AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE ALONE BECAUSE NOBODY LOVES YOU," Ray suddenly yelled back. After an extremely tense moment of silence on both sides, he followed up with "I'm sorry, that was mean. I'm just really stressed out right now, alright? You want some chocolate? It helps with my nerves sometimes."
The Choten was still in shock from Ray's sudden emotion explosion. "Alright….?" He said, a bit concerned of what would happen should he decline. Ray slung his backpack off his shoulders and carefully draped it over the root. He then pulled out a chocolate bar from its depths, and split it in half. Before he could protest, Ray shoved one half into the Choten's mouth, and took the other for himself, nibbling on one of the corners.
Yanking the bar out of his mouth, the Choten coughed for a few seconds. "Oh, I feel better already!" he sarcastically declared. Ray ginned a little bit before going back to eating and looking around for anything that might help. The Choten also begrudgingly began to eat his half as they proceeded to enter their fifth awkward silence of the day. And, for the second time, Ray broke it again.
"How much you think this root can hold up?"
"Enough for a grown man and a spindly little whelp," The Choten muttered, still absent-mindedly chewing.
"I think," Ray said, moving himself a bit further onto the root. "I can get us outta here if I can just summon the right creature!" He put himself fully on the root, and it strained gently as he did. He stood up to his full height, tapping the floor gently to make sure it was stable enough. And with that, he activated his gauntlet, and performed the summon kata.
"Lars, Virtuous Imager!"
Lars burst through his portal, beeping and whirring loudly. He flew over to Ray, quite visibly distressed for a flying light projector. Ray gently pet him on the top of his dome. "Hey, I'm alright. But I'm gonna need your help." He looked down at the Choten and motioned with his thumb. "Oh, and he'd appreciate it too."
Lars' only response was a loud, angry whirr directed at his usual adversary. "My, such language!" The Choten responded. You really should teach him better than that."
Ray rolled his eyes at that statement, and then turned back to Lars. "Yeah, I know. But I'm not just going to leave him here to die! I'm not like him!" Ray then whispered "And besides, the second he gets on land, he's probably going to attack me, so it's just as well that you're here." This seemed to convince the light creature, and he quickly zoomed beneath the root for The Choten to finally let go and for Ray to jump on.
Once they'd firmly landed, Lars flew up to the top of the cliff and Ray piloted the creature far from any cliff edges, and onto a firm-looking patch of land. The two gently stepped off the creature, internally ecstatic that they were finally safe from a horrible death via falling.
"Just so you know, we are never speaking of this again," The Choten said. "In fact, just forget all of this happened and we'll both be better and happier people, alright?"
"Secret's safe with me." Ray said. Before either could respond or say anything he sound of a portal opening up behind them suddenly interrupted them. Ray could hear two very familiar voices calling out his name. "Gabe? Allie?" He ran over to them, Lars following like a loyal puppy.
"Ray!" They both called out, bringing him in for a very tight and tearful group hug. Ray himself could hear another portal opening and closing, more likely than not the Choten escaping.
"Never do that again, alright?" Allie said as they released from the hug. "Especially without telling anyone, no matter what."
"Honestly, I'm surprised you managed to survive out here." Gabe said. "This place is just a mess of crumbling architecture and abandoned death-traps! How did you do it?
"Well, first off," Ray began. "I owe the Choten a new pair of shoes…"