AN: I do not own Escaflowne, as I am merely a fan. This's a 'autoprofile' (That is, the characters are talking about themselves) for Ryuon and Kagero, two of the more obscure and less-known Dragon Slayers who worked for Dilandau in Zaibach. This is supposed to have been written after they died, as ghosts or spirits or what have you. I hope by reading this more fans might come to love Ryuon and Kagero as I have, and perhaps remember to at least include their names in fanfics that mention the DS… Enjoy!

Post-Death Musings

By Ryuon and Kagero (who extend gracious thanks to Ms. Threshie for loaning them her keyboard)

Since this is a profile I suppose we should write our names first. Or rather, I should write our names—being the ex-messenger, I'm doing the typing here. My name is Ryuon, and my friend here is Kagero.

We are both part of the elite unit known as the Dragonslayers. I know we're dead now, and technically not part of the unit any longer, but I feel I will always be a Dragonslayer if only to myself, and so I still refer to myself that way. Kagero agrees with me on this subject—the entire unit lived, fought and were slain together, why not remain a unit in death?

Anyhow, we are Dragonslayers, and will always be so. Kagero and I were both nineteen years old at the time our deaths… We were older than the other Dragon Slayers, but tried our best to be a part of the unit anyway.

When we were still serving Lord Dilandau, I mean. Kagero was always the more amiable one…I'm afraid I was much quieter, less noticed. I'm confident even now after my honorable death to save Lord Dilandau that most of Zaibach will never know I existed, even if they'd met me.

Anyway, for those who are that oblivious to our existence, Kagero and I stood guard over Lord Dilandau. This usually meant standing on either side of that big lion-shaped throne of his when not in battle. I always stood to Lord Dilandau's right, and Kagero to his left. We were sort of his Honor Guard, you might say.

What's that, Kagero? (Pales) No, I will NOT type that in here! People are going to be READING this, you know! Hey, give me that keybo—

Hi, there! This is Kagero typing now, by the way. I don't have the messenger experience Ryuon does, so be warned: I'm a lousy typist! Heh, however, there are things Ryuon neglects to mention about him and me. He's too private a person to write this stuff down—lucky I'm around to enlighten you, eh?

Ryuon was (and still is, even though he's dead!) a very quiet, private guy. And even though he was loyal to the death, he was also terrified of Lord Dilandau if the man so much as looked at him! All right, so maybe he could take a glare or two. He most certainly didn't like being singled out and spoken to, though.

As for myself, I'm so laid-back even a good backhand now and then didn't get me down, heheh. I guess whenever Lord Dilandau was actually angry enough to do that to me (and not taking it out on Gatti instead, eheh) I probably deserved it!

While we're on the subject of Lord Dilandau (we must seem awfully one-track-minded over him, huh?) why don't I—h-hey, I stole this keyboard fair and square! Don't—

(Sigh) Ryuon here. I apologize for that brief occupation of the keyboard by my friend—even though we were friends almost all of our lives and still are in death, he can still sometimes get on my nerves. A-hem.

Okay, okay, Kagero…I'll add what you want to say. Just let me type it, all right?

A-HEM, as Kagero was saying before I rescued the keyboard from his unworthy hands(gets conked on the head) ouch! Er, where was I? Ah yes. Lord Dilandau.

Kagero and I both care very deeply for Lord Dilandau, even now. (Blush) No, no, not like THAT! It's a different kind of caring—a devotion, if you will. As our young deaths will tell you, we were quite willing to give our lives in pursuit of Lord Dilandau's safety and happiness.

(Sigh) Sadly, even though we gave everything we had in service of him, there was and still is a depth of anguish in Lord Dilandau and we can never fathom.

I spent hours and hours thinking about this while I was alive. Standing guard beside Lord Dilandau's throne, I didn't have much else to do! Oh, I was paying attention—if anyone had tried to harm Lord Dilandau while he was there, I wouldn't have thought twice about diving into the path of the attack rather than letting someone injure him.

The real reason I had nothing to do while standing guard there—and Kagero had the same job, so this applies to him, too—is that no one in their right mind would dare attack Lord Dilandau head on.

Somebody off their right mind wouldn't, either. In fact, I daresay even a completely psychotic, suicidal, murderous rogue wouldn't choose to attack Lord Dilandau while he was on his throne, of all places.

Kagero and I were assigned to the Dragon Slayers specially. We were captains, just like him, but—thankfully—under his command.

We were there to guard his life at all times, and in the unlikely even that something horrible happened to Lord Dilandau that prevented him from working (as if that would ever occur, with the whole Dragon Slayer unit willing to die rather than cause our captain discomfort!), Kagero or I would assume command of the unit.

I am eternally thankful that was never necessary.

Kagero wishes to add that… (blushes) Er, that I, uh…died a virgin. I shall retaliate his revealing this embarrassing fact by telling you about his tattoos. He had been a fan of Lord Dilandau's long before becoming a Dragon Slayer.

In fact, a little while before we were assigned to the unit, he shaved his head to have Lord Dilandau's red Alseides tattooed onto his scalp! I'm only glad that his hair had regrown over it by the time we became Dragonslayers, or Lord Dilandau may have thought Kagero was mocking the color of his Guymelef.

In addition to the red Alseides, Kagero had a three-headed green fire dragon that took up his entire back (and actually curled around his shoulders a bit, too), a metallic mechanical dragon from his left ankle to knee, and a swarm of rather girly-looking black and blue-winged butterflies all around his right wrist. Don't argue, Kagero, they were girly.

Although the black and blue coloration was rather patriotic to the Dragonslayers, given that they were also our uniform colors…

Anyhow, it's rather ironic that Kagero, who was so fond of dragons as to tattoo several of them onto his body, became a part of the Dragon Slayers. As I found out once we were part of the unit, though, he wasn't so fond of dragons as to have qualms about slaying them for Lord Dilandau.

Thankfully, Lord Dilandau usually liked to do most of the slaying himself.

I believe violence was a significant outlet of frustration for him. As such, whenever I was struck, punched, slapped or otherwise maimed by our captain I tried not to take it too personally, however many comments he was making about how much he hated me. Eheh…

Much as we tried to fit in with the unit, sometimes Kagero and I felt rather isolated. We were, after all, the last of the Dragon Slayers to be assigned to Lord Dilandau's command, and four years older than everyone else besides.

I never let romantic thoughts into my head to interfere with my duties, but Kagero sure did. (At least, I think so. He begs to differ.) Looking back, sometimes I think he was so selfless in battle in hopes that he would be injured and sent to the (cough) pleasant company of the ship nurses. What a thing to be thinking of in such times…

This is Kagero. I would have let Ryuon keep typing everything, but I've just got to protest over what he's saying here about me! I may have enjoyed the company of women occasionally (Really, what male soldier hasn't? Ryuon the Bashful doesn't count.) but I would never let such a thing interfere with my duties, or my loyalty to Lord Dilandau.

I was loyal to him before I was even under his command, and if he'd told me to do something back then I still would have done it—combine that with devoting the rest of my (admittedly short) life to him, and how much more loyal can you get?

Okay, Ryuon can type again now—I've added my opinion on the subject. He's entitled his, too, which is why I didn't just backspace all that up there! (grins and hands Ryuon the keyboard)

(Flustered) Stop stealing the damned thing and let me type, will you? You promise? Okay, thank you.

Please forgive the continuing interruptions in which one of us or the other steals the keyboard away. It's really difficult to accurately write down the opinions of one of us when the other is typing them. I'll try not to say things about Kagero that are biased to my opinion... (Mutters)

Now, what have we missed explaining about? Oh, yes…since we were so much in the background during our time serving Lord Dilandau, I'm sure some people who read this will wonder how anyone would distinguish that Kagero and I are captains like Dilandau-sama, and not the same rank as the rest of the unit. Let me enlighten you…

Lord Dilandau's uniform, the uniform of a captain, was the standard Dragon Slayer attire but for a few additions. It had two golden darts on the front bottom of the leg guard, spikes on the shoulderpads and an elaborate collar design in gold.

The uniform of a normal Dragonslayer had none of these. Kagero's and my uniforms had the golden darts, but not the shoulderpad spikes or elaborate collar. Both the spikes and collar indicated that Lord Dilandau was not just of captain rank, but actively in command of a unit. Not all who achieved the rank of captain were ever assigned their own unit, you know. Such as Kagero and I…

The darts signify captaincy, thus Kagero and I by having them were officially higher rank than the other Dragon Slayers. However, we never aspired to have our own units—serving Lord Dilandau was a much better use for our lives, don't you think?

All in all, I would say that serving Lord Dilandau as Dragonslayers was the best thing Kagero and I ever did. Always difficult, often painful…but I would not be sorry to go back and do it all again if it would help or please Lord Dilandau even a little bit. And on that subject, Kagero and I can agree readily.