Hello all!
So, this is, for all intents and purposes, my first fanfiction! I had one that I was working on before, but have decided to start anew.
Before you read, you should probably have watched at least through episode 5 of the second season of Noragami or have read through chapter 20 of the manga. If you haven't seen/read it at all, I highly recommend it!
Please be aware that this work is not beta-read and will likely contain grammar mistakes. Constructive criticism over anything is most definitely welcome. Also, as I have a lot to deal with in life, including school and other activities, updates will be sporadic and infrequent, but I will try my best to find time to update.
DISCLAIMER: Neither Kuroko no Basuke nor Noragami belong to me. They belong to respective owners.
Rated T for language.
Please enjoy!
"Hyūga-sama, I know you're the serious about your duties as the god of athletics, but do we really have to come to a high school orientation every year..?"
"Don't be stupid! Of course we do!" Hyūga shouted, his infamous clutch mode activated. The Shinki who had spoken, Furihata, backed away, sweating in a nervous exasperation. "It's all about seeing who's signing up for sports clubs!" Hyūga continued, nodding vigorously in agreement with himself. "As their patron, it's my duty to keep an eye on athletes everywhere, you know?"
"Furi, you've barely been with Hyūga for ten years now… Try coming to these things every year for decades in a row…" Koganei, another Shinki, muttered under his breath.
"What was that, you brat?!" Hyūga turned, raising a threatening fist.
"N-nothing, Hyūga-sama," Koganei insisted, making sure to add the usually-absent honorific. Behind him, Mitobe nodded assertively in confirmation, while the other six Shinki couldn't help but giggle quietly.
"Come on, you guys, it's not that bad," grinned the newest Shinki of them all, a jovial teenager by the name of Kiyoshi. "I think it's fun to scout out the sports players," he went on before laughing and patting Furihata rather roughly on the back.
"You're worse than Furi is, Kiyoshi! You just joined us last year! You've never even been to one of these things before, have you?!" Koganei shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the other Shinki, who never lost his smile. This time, the other Shinki couldn't help but laugh out loud, and before long Koganei and Kiyoshi were laughing right alongside them.
Hyūga let out a content sigh. "Now that we're done with that, can we please go and check out these clubs..?"
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go, Hyūga," said Izuki. The black-haired Shinki was the god's oldest partner, as well as being his Guidepost. He turned and walked toward one of the many club booths the school had set up, waving his hand in an indication for the others to follow.
"Izuki-senpai is so good at handling Hyūga-sama…" Fukuda, another recently picked up Shinki, sweatdropped.
"Well, he's got tons of experience. He's been around even longer than I have," Koganei said. Behind him, Mitobe simply nodded.
"I suppose… Hey, Koganei-senpai, how long have you been serving Hyūga-sama, anyway?"
"Eh? How long? I'm not really sure… I lost count after a few centuries, and that was a couple decades back, too…" The Shinki put a thoughtful hand to his chin, trying to come up with an answer while his friends gaped at him. After a moment, he shrugged, giving up on finding an accurate response. "Who knows? Mitobe came just a couple years after me, though." The black-haired Shinki smiled.
"Mitobe-senpai's been around for that long, too?" Kawahara said in amazement. He, along with Fukuda and Furihata, had only been in Hyūga's service for just over a decade; they had all joined him within a year of each other, as the god had been looking to recruit more Shinki to expand his power. Of course, this had backfired when the three of them ended up taking the forms of non-combative items; Kawahara became a mirror, Fukuda turned into a writing brush, and Furihata ended up transforming into a chihuahua.
"Yup!" Koganei said, popping the "p" at the end. "In all this time, I haven't heard him speak, either!"
Haven't heard him… Ever?!
It's been centuries… Is he even able to speak?
That's weirdly cool…!
Mitobe's smile grew, and his eyes shut into an expression that imitated laughter, but of course he made no sound.
"Ohhh, look at this! The basketball club!" Izuki exclaimed, stopping and looking back at his comrades. Hyūga was immediately at attention; although he was the god of athletics, it was common knowledge, at least among his Shinki, that basketball was by far his favorite sport.
"Huh… It looks like there aren't too many applicants… This is a new school, isn't it, Hyūga?" asked Kiyoshi, taking note of the unusually pristine-looking building.
"Yeah, it just opened last year," the god responded. "I wonder how many members there are…" Strangely, the girl at the basketball booth caught his attention before he had the chance to look for any players. Her brown hair was cut short, her bangs held up by hair clips to keep them out of her face. She wasn't beautiful, like some of the other girls Hyūga had seen in his centuries of existence, but he could tell something about her was different from everyone around her. She looked strangely familiar; even though her face was twisted up with concern and worry at the moment, he felt that she was generally a happy, hardworking girl. It took him a moment, but all at once, he recognized her. She's the one that…
"Hyūga, are you alright? You're staring at that girl," Izuki said, waving his hand in front of the god's face to bring him back to attention.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, sorry. I think she might be able to sense us, if not see us," he said. "She's got a different aura about her." Izuki raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond. "Anyway, we-"
He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening before he took a surprised step backwards. The Shinki, sensing their master's discomfort, immediately took up a defensive position, looking around for any sign of danger.
After only a second, Hyūga visibly relaxed before comforting his Shinki. "It's fine, guys, there's nothing here. Nothing dangerous, anyway. I was just surprised when I saw that," he said, pointing ahead of him for emphasis.
There, next to the school's basketball stand, was a little white ball; a spirit. A newly dead, unnamed Shinki. (1)
"No wonder that girl is so freaked out," Hyūga mumbled, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black jacket.
"Oh." Kiyoshi was at a loss for words; being a relatively new spirit himself, he had never seen a nameless Shinki before, much less one that had just recently died. He turned to his master. "What are you going to do?"
Hyūga was silent for a moment before answering. "I'll claim him," he said slowly. "This one… I dunno how to explain it, but I've got a feeling about him. He's… different."
None of the Shinki asked what he meant.
Hyūga cleared his throat before holding out his arm, pointing at the spirit. A bright light appeared in his hand before he began to speak:
"You, with nowhere to go and nowhere to return… I grant you a place to belong. My name is Hyūga. Bearing a posthumous name, you shall remain here. Bearing this name, I make thee my servant. With this name and its alternate, I use my life to make thee a Shinki. Thou art Ka. Come, Kaki!" (2)
A brilliant flash radiated from the tiny phantom before it transformed. The symbol 火 appeared for a moment before it shot up, turning every which way before finally coming down and making a beeline for its new master.
Instead of arriving in Hyūga's hand like a weapon would, the light instead landed right next to him before expanding into the form of a large cat; a tiger, to be exact.
The other Shinki stepped back, a few blinded by the light coming from Hyūga's newly attained Shinki, others slightly afraid of the indescribable aura coming from this new companion of theirs. There really were no words that could be used to recreate the sensation of what they were feeling then; they just knew that this Shinki would be extraordinary beyond what any of them could possibly imagine.
(1) This is under the assumption that this is how they appear when newly dead, as Yukine did.
(2) I ACTUALLY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THIS. I am aware that there is another part of the naming; the vessel name. It's supposedly the Chinese reading of the Shinki's vessel name or something of the sort (I really don't get how that works), but I don't exactly speak Chinese (or Japanese, for that matter), and Google Translate can only get you so far. In fact, for all of the alternate names throughout this story, there's a chance that they will be inaccurate; I'm not completely sure about any of them. For the sake of not confusing anyone (or making a fool out of myself, thanks) I won't be including the Chinese reading because I don't know anything about it. If anyone knows Chinese/Japanese and would be willing to help me out, that'd be great, but otherwise it's gonna stay as it is. Sorry if it's inaccurate, but it's the best I can do.
I'm going to be using honorifics and such in this story because I honestly can't imagine some of the characters (ahem, Kuroko) addressing other people without them. I'll be using macrons, too, because otherwise I'm too inconsistent with the spelling and it ticks me off (thanks, OCD) and that was the only solution I could find.
Thanks for reading! Please drop a review on your way out and let me know what you think!
