The Hika Blabs ::
This thing you see in front of you began when Hika was bored over her summer holidays, and spent massive amounts of time with her friend Minou on Ragnarok Online. We both had male characters (created for the sake of flirting with girls... and yes, I have to admit, it was extremely fun), whom Hika then fell in love with... And so began the story of Kale and Kaze.
Stray will consist of small clipping-like chapters, outlining the different stages of Kale and Kaze's relationship, along with the people they meet and the things they do... Yes, it will be a little pointless. Also, note that there isn't too strong a connection with the game, except for various names used. You will not even hear a single skill name... I think.
A warning: this story might become mild BL (shounen-ai, slash, whatever you call it) in later chapters, but it will be very easy to shrug it off and proclaim it to be friendship. The hints are so subtle it probably won't matter, but if you are offended by it (god, they don't even do anything except er... I don't know, punch each other like good friends do?), please do not sue me. To tell the truth, most of you won't notice it. But still, just to be safe.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ragnarok Online (duh), and Kigami Kaze's original character design belongs to my amazingly talented friend, Minou.
Chapter one
らしくねえって誰かが決めることじゃねえ！
(Who's to say what's supposed to be?!)
The girl looked out of place. She was a mild-looking young thing, with shoulder-length honeyed-brown hair tied up into a ponytail with a few stray strands that framed a delicate face. Her blue eyes were large and flawless, a symbol of purity and innocence – eyes that belonged to those who would never imagine having to hurt someone without reason, and even if with reason, with much difficulty. She wandered into the Thief Guild, creating a terrible contrast to all the other people lurking around, hiding under rotting cloaks, and the reception looked at her funny.
"Your business today, madam?"
She was too young to be called 'madam', but yet that was the procedure, and the male at the counter felt obliged to keep to it.
The girl heisitated, "I… I need to temporarily borrow one or two people from your guild…"
The reception raised an eyebrow and took a closer look. A plain brown bodice over a white blouse and a flowing skirt that fell to sweep at the ground, the lack of armour except a simple shoulder guard, and a sword that looked quite new that hung at her waist, indicating the status of a not-so-poor commoner – this wasn't their usual customer.
Still, he continued with the procedure. "And may I know for what? If you have someone you wished to wipe off the face of Rune Midgard I can introduce you to some of our finest Assassins, if you have someone you wanted to have followed around and kept an eye on we have the best Stalkers for the job…"
The girl's eyes seemed to widen, almost terrified at the idea of hiring someone to kill another, "N-no, I have no intention of doing that… I thought I might need some help… you know…" Her eyes flickered sideways slightly, "Collecting… items…"
The man lazily swatted at a fly that happened to come to rest on his arm, successfully flattening into a mere smudge on his sleeve. "Madam, then I do suppose you have come to the wrong place. The Hunter Guild or the Knight Guild might be a more appropriate choice to seek for such help…"
"They were out of people, sir." The girl swallowed, trying very hard to not run out of the entrance from which she came, "I have to do this quest as soon as possible though, and when I visited the Hunter Guild they pointed me to the Thief Guild so I thought…" She trailed off, suddenly looking unsure as a cloaked figure nearby cleared his throat and spat on the ground.
"Ah." There was a pause, then a sigh of defeat. "I understand. So it has become known to the other Greater Guilds now…" He rubbed at his temples, his sentence directed more at himself than at the young girl. "Madam, they must have been referring to two very strange members of our Guild who stray from the usual ways. A stupid thing to do, since it has landed them in an extreme monetary crisis, but alas, there is no rule to stop them from doing so..." He sighed, and reached for a thick black leather book lying at the corner of the counter and flipped through it, his eyes scanning the pages, "Ah, they are currently on one of their… quests, but I do suppose they are bound to return soon. If you are that desperate, you could find yourself a seat and wait over-"
"Oh, don't talk like that! You flatter me so!" A giggle, followed by boyish laughter, as a young female blacksmith entered the guild, her slender legs – exposed due to the extremely short denim pants she was wearing – drawing the attention of many.
"Ah, but I'm talking the truth! Aren't we, Kaze!"
"Obviously."
"You must remember to come back and look for us next time you need help you know? It isn't often we get such a pretty and adorable girl like you to visit us. It brightens the dreariness of our usual quests…"
The man at the counter raised an eyebrow at that.
"Oops. Hello mister Qren, how was your day? I had absolutely no intention of insulting you with my previous sentence, naturally. And don't worry! Our client will be absolutely pleased with what we have done for her and will lodge no complaint!"
"Kale, I would actually like to point out the fact that you accept absolutely none of the quests I offer you unless it involves a pretty girl, and nothing to do with the norm."
"Absolutely so!" Kale flashed a grin at Qren, "Which was why I said I had no intention of insulting you, but apparently I did. Please stop glaring at me like that?"
Qren didn't really think that he was glaring, but many other members of the Thief Guild would have agreed with Kale that Qren almost seemed to have a natural death glare etched onto his features. There was a snicker from behind Kale, and Qren redirected his death glare to the source of the snicker.
There was a nonchalant shrug from said source, "At least we do quests."
Their client giggled at that, but walked forward and placed a bag of coins at the counter, winking at the now exceedingly grumpy Qren before saluting the two young males and exitting, her cart trailing merrily behind her.
Qren opened the bag and piled up the coins like an expert. "You do realise that it is not much, compared to the amount paid for the usual jobs."
"Mmhm, but money is still money. You can't deny that."
Qren sighed and pushed two thirds of the pile of coins at Kale, who gladly received them. "If you even considered doing one of the usual jobs, you won't have to worry about how you are to settle your three meals daily, you know? Both of you are young, and have the potential to become the favourites of our clients, and yet…"
Kale made a face. "But all those clients are old ugly men with an ugly face and an even uglier personality. I mean, why else would you want to pay to kill others, unless your personality stank, right?" He directed the question to the person behind him.
"Definitely."
"There," Kale turned back and nodded in satisfaction at Qren, "Kaze knows those people more than I do, since he's probably met some of them in the earlier years of his life, so of course he knows better. Me? I'd rather offer my talents to a fair maiden like-" Kale paused as he noticed the girl standing to a corner, watching the scene in front of her mutely, "Like this young lady here!" He beamed at her.
She blinked, obviously shocked at how the attention was suddenly focused at her, but managed a small smile.
"Let me guess," Kale held up a hand before the girl to speak, "You're looking for us."
The girl looked from one boy to the other, then back to Qren, who sighed,
"Madam, introducing to you the weirdest members of the guild, Kigami Kaze and Kale…"
"So, how old are you, Yune?"
"I've just turned fourteen this year."
They had set off for Izlude, since that was where they could get a boat to reach the Island she wanted to go to. Throughout the walk Yune found herself answering question after question the two threw at her constantly; it wasn't annoying though, since she took the chance to return the questions to find out more about these two "strange" people who weren't "doing what they were supposed to be meant to do".
"How about you, Kale-san?"
The redhead turned to her with a grin, "Guess."
He was definitely a young boy, probably not yet a man. Rusty-wine-red eyes still held the glint of a mischievous kid, and unlike his companion, he wasn't really very tall – around half a head taller than she was. She thought seriously for a moment, "Uhm… fifteen?"
"HAHA! Kaze Kaze I've grown younger by two years!" Kale punched the air, "That's great. Always better to look younger than anything."
Yune found herself returning his grin. "What about Kaze-san?"
Kale's companion was quieter than he was, but that was simply because the young Stalker seemed to have a lot more to say. Kaze wasn't a person who didn't talk – he talked more than most people Yune knew – but rather a person who seemed to think through his words slightly more. He was taller than Kale around half a head, built slightly lean, but yet still muscular. Cooler dark blue eyes didn't glint with mischief, but rather with a more composed stubborness. The cigarette he had lit almost after they exited the Thief Guild also seemed to add a more mature aura to him, wreathed in the white-greys of cigarette smoke that seemed to match the colour of his hair.
"Eighteen." He exhaled a small cloud.
It was close to the answer she would have given, if he had asked her to guess.
"So, we need to get on to the boat and… what?"
"I need to collect Corals, actually."
Kale whistled, and Kaze raised an eyebrow,
"What are you making?"
"You… you can make stuff from Coral?" Yune found herself oblivious.
"Mm, Coral is actually an organic gemstone. If you polish it and refine it you can actually make rather good-looking jewellery."
"Oh… I, I didn't know that," Yune flushed and ducked her head, "This is just part of my test…"
"Test?" Kale echoed.
"Yea… My sisters give me tests… more like quests to prove my skill."
Kaze smirked, "I'd say they're just using you to do errands so they can make new jewellery."
Yune found that thought amusing. "I never thought of it that way, I guess…" But she let it drop, and sink, before changing the topic.
They found the ship that would take them to the island; Yune paid for the fare, as they had agreed. Though to her it seemed rather small a sum of money, both boys had been elated when she offered to pay it for them. They were, afterall – as Qren had put it – in some sort of a monetary crisis.
Instead of sitting down within one of the rooms in the ship, Kale and Kaze had dragged Yune up to the deck. The breeze was slightly moist and salty, as most seabreezes were; and was so strong it whipped her hair backwards and nearly undid her ponytail.
Kale inhaled deeply, "Whewf. Would never get to smell that anywhere near Prontera. Or Morroc," He added, and reached over to pull the cigarette from Kaze's mouth, "Don't smoke out here, you're polluting the air! Besides, the wind's so strong, I doubt you can anyway."
"I can." Kaze retorted.
"Too bad." Kale stepped on the cigarette butt and grinned.
Somehow it brought a small smile to Yune's lips, "You two must be really good friends."
Both turned around to look at her as if she was crazy.
"What?"
"Him?"
"Well, I guess he's my partner for work and all. And we go to the bar together. And okay, we go together when we're flirting…"
"The guy stole my wallet when he first saw me." Kaze muttered.
"Correction, when I saw you for the second time in my sad, sad pathetic life." Kale gave out a fake sob here, "You treated me like a dog the first time you saw me."
Kaze ignored that comment, "We're not good friends. He's my…" He paused. "Subordinate."
"What?" Kale snorted, "When did it become that way!?"
"I'm older than you."
"That does not make me your subordinate! Don't you have to pay your subordinates?"
"I make breakfast." Kaze shrugged.
"And I make dinner." Came the retort.
"Well, you're still my subordinate."
"Idiot."
"Gaki."(1)
Yune watched the two in front of her begin to throw insults at other like one would watch a table tennis match, and couldn't help but smile.
The ride wasn't a long one. The walk that followed was long. In order to be able to get to the coral reefs they had to pretty much "go underwater". The place was magicked, however – at least, that's what Yune thought; simply because you could breathe underwater just like the fishes did.(2) And though it was terribly difficult to walk around, they got used to it after a bit of wading around.
Somehow.
Whilst Yune was more than unused to the sudden water resistance, she also found it terribly hard to kill the monsters. Kale had ran off, claiming that he'd collect the corals faster since he was not going to kill the monsters around it, but rather sneak past and grab them.
Kaze and her were left searching for coral piles with slightly less monsters around them so they could hack them away. Yune was nearly overwhelmed by a fish, which had to be kicked away by Kaze.
"Sashimi for dinner?" He smirked a bit as the fish lay slain, before looking to Yune, this time serious. "You don't look like you can handle them."
"I… I can't." Yune flushed, embarrassed, "Which was why I thought I'd go ask for help in the first place."
"Why did you take it up then?" The question was not meant to be accusing, "The quest, I mean. The one your sisters sent you on?"
"Because…" Yune gasped as another fish came flailing towards her. Kaze kicked it away again with a dirty word,
"Stupid fish." He turned to Yune after that, as if telling her he was waiting for an answer.
"My sisters said they were able to, when they were my age… Our family is famous for talented female knights, you see… And well, father and mother see all my sisters so talented, and they say it's supposed to be in my blood. I'm supposed to be… as talented as them…" She seemed to grow angry at that thought, and her knuckles gripped her sword until they went white. The fish that came charging at her once more was thrown back as she slammed her sword into it with a cry. It then tackled her and sent her flying.
Kaze sighed and slammed a katar into the fish. "Don't force yourself or anything."
Yune bit down on her lip. She looked upset, though not ready to cry; there seemed to be a stubbornness in her watering eyes that stopped them from leaking. "But you understand don't you? Your entire guild's telling you how you were supposed to be doing something, what you should be; and when you don't live up to their expectations of what you should be…"
"It doesn't matter."
Kaze hacked off the tentacles of one of the creatures that tried to launch a sneak attack on him, his eyebrows in a slight frown. "Because whether you're supposed to be like this, or like that, or should be able to do something, it's not up to them to decide. You know yourself best, you decide what's most like you."
A chunk of coral fell into his hands after suffering a clean blow from his blade. "That's why it doesn't bother us. We decide what we want to do, and that's what we're supposed to be." He tossed the chunk toward Yune, before shrugging a shoulder at where Kale was running from an entire mob of fish, "He'll agree with me."
The smile was confident.
"What took you so long, Yune?"
"I went hunting for Corals." Yune looked absolutely dishevelled. Her clothes were soaked, her face muddy, her hair a complete mess. "With people from the Thief Guild because I was too weak. We trained a bit together."
Her sisters' looks of disbelief and mocking faded off their faces when they saw Yune's triumphant smile.
"I'm sorry. I don't think I'm as talented as you all with the sword. If mom and dad expect me to be like you again I will tell them about how I wield a bow and arrow better than you all. And don't tell me how you managed to kill some monster when you were my age anymore, that's you."
Her determination flickered a bit when there seemed to be silence from the four older girls in front of her.
Then came a giggle, and all four girls were laughing.
Yune didn't know why, but the next day they presented her with a new polished bow and a quiver of arrows.
1. Gaki: Kid, brat. Not exactly the most polite way you can phrase it either. Kaze will constantly call Kale this, so remember it. XD
2. Bleh. The first draft of this was in the under water caves on that island thing, and I was too lazy to change it, considering the amount of things I had to rewrite if I did. Doesn't it amuse you, that people can go all the way under water, and still breathe? Must be some Rune Midgard magic.
This chapter was written ages ago. I dug it up, cleared up a few errors and changed a few details. This fanfic will consist of similar one-chapter events, almost like clippings, about the various quests Kaze and Kale take up… This takes place about a year after they were introduced to each other as partners in the same guild… Yes, don't worry, the later chapters will go back to that past…
So… Yes, Hika will go and rewrite chapter 2, and hopefully post it up soon…
Review if you feel the need to. (smiles pleadingly)