Series: Warrior's Price||Story: Warrior's Wound
Characters: Edo, Ryou, OCs, Haou||Pair: N/A
Words: 1,815/24,999||Chapters: 1/12
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG
Challenges: Diversity Writing: alternate/divergent timelines, GX: J4, 7-15 chapters; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #18, 24,999 words; EAster Egg Advent 2016, day #5, someone almost (but not quite) dies
Timeline: Canon divergent shortly after Ryou and Shou's conversation in episode 137. So, Juudai is Haou but none of his friends know this as of yet. Say he's held the position about a month or so.
Summary: Ryou is dying. Edo has one chance to save him, but the price he'll have to pay is not what he expects or wants.

Red shone bright against black. Liquid splashed downwards, visible even in the blue light of the comet.

The sharp smell of copper assaulted Edo's nostrils, too sharp, too clear, too fresh and new.

"Bloo-D!" Edo snapped, his monster surging forward at his command, slashing at the attacker. In a moment they broke apart.

He hadn't even bothered to learn their name. What they were was trouble and that was all that he'd needed to know for the moment. Only now he needed to know something else as he darted forward to catch Hell Kaiser before he collapsed all the way to the ground.

He's too light. He'd already guessed that; after living together for two months and actually being able to see how Ryou ate, he'd realized something wasn't right. What wasn't right he didn't know, but it wasn't.

Ryou's eyes fluttered. Edo couldn't get a good look but they weren't right at all: dazed and confused and full of pain, pain that Hell Kaiser did his best to avoid showing no matter what.

Edo looked downward, going even paler when he realized his hands were covered in blood. It was easy to see the wound now that he was close enough.

It's not that deep. But I don't think it needed to be.

The wound sliced low into Ryou's stomach. Under most circumstances – if they'd been at home – then it would have required a trip to the hospital to have it cleaned out and stitched up.

His fingers brushed carefully against it again and he bent closer. Something didn't feel right or look right.

Edo glanced around. He'd seen something when the attacker vanished and he wanted to be certain of it.

There it was, stretched out on the ground. He'd seen it used before against him, when it was a hologram. When it hadn't cut into someone he knew and when the blood from the wound wasn't all over both of them.

Sword of Toxic Solitude. He knew what it did when it was a card. It doubled the attack and defense of the equipped monster during damage calculation and could only be used when one had just one monster.

But now he could see that wound and there was a streak of pale orange on Ryou's wound. There was a scent too, a smell, something that wasn't good at all.

He needed to find help. Ryou wasn't responding all that well, if at all. His eyes kept closing and opening and one hand waved around uselessly before it dropped back down to his side. There weren't any signs of any of his monsters, either.

We're too far from the mansion. Edo strained to remember the mental map he'd been sketching of this area of the world. They'd been on a scouting mission, planning to get a better view of the area and what sort of warriors were there, and who they worked for.

Cyber Phoenix did a lot of scouting for them. One of the recent trips revealed the placement of a good sized village – almost enough to be called a small town – not too far away. At least he hoped it wasn't too far away.

Can I get him there? Edo wasn't all that certain about that. Even when he was too light, it wouldn't be easy to carry Ryou there. Given how tall he was, it would be too awkward.

He would have given quite a lot to have someone else who could give him a hand. But all he had was himself and the contents of his deck.

If that was all he had, then that was what he would work with. "Double Guy!"

His monster came out – both sides of him – standing over Ryou. Edo carefully shifted Hell Kaiser back down to the ground before looking up at Double Guy.

"Watch him," Edo ordered as he snatched up the sword. He might need it when he found help. "I'll be back as fast as I can be."

He loved his monsters and would never fail to be grateful to his father to having made them for him. But every now and then he couldn't help but wish that his father had made at least one Destiny Hero that could fly.

Instead, he ran. Instead, he covered as much ground as he could, aiming for that village-town. Not knowing exactly which way to go and not having a nicely detailed map or even street signs wasn't doing him any good, either. But he kept going. His other option was just not to do anything at all, and that made it no option, period.

Edo pitched to a halt at what highly resembled a crossroads. A direction sign of sorts rose up there, one sign pointing to the left, another to the right. He stared up at it; the comet's light wasn't at the strongest right now, but he strained hard to get a good look at it.

Haou-sama's Castle.

Edo's nose wrinkled at that. He and Ryou had worked hard for the last month and a half trying to figure out exactly who this Haou really was. They'd never seen him in person and from what rumors they dragged together they weren't at all certain if they wanted to.

Well, that was one way that he wasn't going to go. It might get him what he wanted – a warlord had to have a healer of some kind on staff – but the price would be far too much. He wanted a way to save Ryou, not to kill the both of them.

But the other sign offered a little more hope. Valeton. That had to be the place that he'd heard of.

He headed down that way, glad of the chance to catch his breath.

Edo tried very hard not to think about what Ryou could be going through right now. He could only hope that Double Guy would be able to stay there long enough.

I've never tried to have one of them out for so long without me.

He would have done more if he could. But he knew very little about first aid. Saiou and Mizuchi had always helped him when he'd injured himself, or had someone brought over who could do it for them. He'd never had to do it himself, or for someone else.

So he hurried down the pathway, looking for anything that would tell him how much farther Valeton was. He didn't see anything. There were parts of the path that weren't all that well-defined, rocks cropping upward, trees stretching across the path.

Is this the wrong way? He wanted to believe that he'd taken the correct turn. Cyber Phoenix's scouting gave them a lot of general information but going on the ground and seeing from the air were two entirely different things and Edo knew he wasn't certain.

It didn't matter if Valeton was the place Cyber Phoenix had seen or not, really. What mattered was that it had someone who could help Ryou.

The path led upward and Edo followed it, dodging and ducking around the thickly spreading tree branches and bushes. All that encouraged him right now was the fact that every now and then he could see footsteps or other marks of travel. People had come this way and it wasn't likely to be Haou's army, not with how things were overgrown.

When he stopped again, he stood on top of a hill, with a small stream cascading down from a short distance away. Spread out in the valley below the hill was a town. Not a large one, not by the standards of the towns that he'd seen on Earth, but reasonably large for here. He could see people moving around from where he stood. The town itself was surrounded by a high stone wall, pierced by four gates, one to each direction. The stream led into the town and widened to a river that divided it.

There has to be a healer there somewhere. Edo didn't waste another moment, but hurried down the far side of the hill. He wasn't sure of how far he'd come or how long he'd been gone, only that every breath he took told him that it was too far too long and if he lost more time, then Ryou would die.

Everyone had to die sometime. He'd learned that before. But he refused to let Hell Kaiser die to a nameless monster and a poisoned cut. Let him die in battle if he were going to die at all.

Getting to the nearest gate ate up more time, though. The closer that he came to it, the more crowded the pathway grew now that he was out of the woods. He saw humans and monsters of all kinds, most of them hurrying inside as fast as they could.

When he reached the gate, one of the guards there reached out a hand to stop him.

"You're not a resident here," Real Crusader told him. His armor gleamed bright and white as the comet's light began to strengthen. "What do you want here?"

Edo pushed the hand away. He didn't have time for anything more than information. "I need a healer. Someone who can reverse the effects of this sword's poison." He raised it up, keeping the blade pointed away.

Real Crusader gave the blade a single look before he stepped to one side. "Someone was injured with this?"

Edo wanted to strangle him for that alone. He breathed in carefully instead. "Yes and I don't know how much time he has left. Does Valeton have a healer who can help?"

"You can speak to Angel Witch. She might be able to help you." Real Crusader stepped aside, gesturing Edo through the gates. "But I would hurry if I were you. That sword's poison works within a day's time and isn't pretty or painless. Your friend may already be gone."

Edo didn't care if Real Crusader saw him wince, not this time. How much time had he already lost just trying to get here? "Where can I find her?" He refused to even address the thought of Ryou having died already.

"Head for the center of town. She has a small booth there and she should be setting up right around now. But she's the only healer that Valeton has."

Edo got what that meant: there would be a lot of people who would want her attention, especially with a war going on. If he didn't hurry, then it might be too late.

So he hurried. Finding the center of town wasn't that difficult; the general stream of people made it obvious. The crowd was thick, though, and he tried his best to make progress. He couldn't be certain of how much he made, except that it didn't feel as if it were enough.

Hold on, Ryou. I'll be back with help.

To Be Continued

Notes: I should update this next week. As always, I have Evil Plans. Also, Haou will show up later in the story. As I said, Evil Plans.