Title: Underground
Author: Lennith
Rating: PG-13 (this chapter. Expect R for later chapters.)
Pairing: Kazuma/Ryuhou overall 3
Disclaimer: I am not a genius, hence I did not create Scryed! The story and all characters belong to Bandai, Yosuke Kuroda, Yasunari Toda, the little green gods, Bill Gates, and whoever else contributed to their creation. Namely, not me!
Warnings: This is a yaoi fic! If you don't like man on man action, please don't read this! If you do read this, it's your own damn fault so don't come crying to me when you have nightmares about your chemistry teacher giving your brother a cavity exam. Also, as you can see, I have a twisted sense of humor. I should put a warning for that too... Probably plenty of swearing, blood, guts, and adult situations. M/M sex in later chapters.
A/N: Keke... nn() This is my first fanfiction to be aired to the public! As a newbie, please feel free to review because I need all the reader's imput I can get. Constructive criticism is certainly welcome! Flames will be posted in my livejournal to be admired, sniggered at, dissected and mindraped. 3 Sorry if this starts out slow. I'm rather tired of predictable, obviously yaoi fics so I'm trying to go at this from a different approach. If you're looking for a fic where most of the chapter is filled with the charachters lustfully contemplating one another... I'm sorry to say this isn't it. This is most definatlya yaoi fic though. Watch out for lemons in later chapters, because Kazuma, Ryuhou, and I are all a bunch of lewd perverts!
Thank you, Rena (FF author: Cheza-chan) for your encouragement! You're my angel!
Lennith
Chapter 1: Wasted Time
It had been almost a year since Ryuhou last glimpsed the Shell Bullet. The rocky wastelands and endlessly blue sky offered no new clues to the man's whereabouts as Ryuhou careened through the desolate landscape in his jeep. The left front tire rattled its complaints and the needle of the fuel gauge had been dipping lower and lower the past hour. Ryuhou tightened his hands on the worn steering wheel. 'I know, I know. It's time to take a rest, you hunk of junk,' the man thought to himself. His own stomach groaned in time to the jarring of the vehicle. His clothes were soiled and disheveled from his last battle and his teal green hair hung limp and dirty around his face. It was enough to make a person like Ryuhou's, orderly and neat to a fault, skin crawl. After traveling without rest for three days it was time to find a village to refuel and patch up both him and the jeep. He cursed between clenched teeth. Another week of fruitless search for enemy, teammate, rival and chief irritant: Kazuma. Surrendering to the inevitable, Ryhou's elegant fingers manipulated the GPS panel methodically. Kazuma or no, he had to stop and rest for at least a night.
After their "friendly match," Kanami and Mimori had spent the better of a month nursing Ryuhou and Kazuma back to health. Both alter users had been at the very brink of death and even their unmatched stamina couldn't rush the healing of all their broken bones and abused organs. Ryuhou himself had suffered twelve broken bones, including two in his face, and a ruptured spleen. 'The bastard.' Ryuhou felt his jaw clench even tighter, resisting the urge to grind his teeth. He'd never had that habit before; it was a pestilence that came along with the said bastard. 'He had way too much fun watching me vomit up blood. At least he couldn't laugh without coughing up blood himself since I punctured his lung.' That, at least, gave him a smug sense of justification.
As was almost expected though, as soon as Kazuma could move enough to get around by himself he'd disappeared into the wilds again. Although the girls, especially Kanami, had been mortified, Ryuhou was not particularly surprised. What did surprise him though was that the Shell Bullet had evaded him for close to a year. Ryuhou had seen him twice within three months after Kazuma had left Kanami's side during skirmishes with the mainland. Then, he had simply disappeared. In the back of his mind, Ryuhou had always expected Kazuma to go off on his own, coming back to check on Kanami from time to time. He'd expected to see him irregularly, but often on the battlefield. He'd even thought that when the attacks became more frenzied, as they had been these days, that he'd be willing to partner up with Ryuhou again. The three months they'd spent working together to suppress the initial attacks from mainland hadn't been that bad. They had argued constantly and spent whatever time wasn't used destroying mainland tankers threatening to kill one another, but oddly enough they hadn't seemed to really find eachother to be bad company.
But after that second sighting Kazuma had neither visited Kanami or allowed Ryuhou a glimpse of him. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary that day. He was the same Kazuma, grinning like a feral beast, shouting insults and curses as he tore through the armored crafts like paper. When the battle had ended he had merely looked over towards Ryuhou to see if he was still alive, given a grin and a little wave and taken off. After six months of fighting with no news from Kazuma, Ryuhou had started to feel a bit anxious. It had started as just an uncomfortable gnawing feeling somewhere around his middle and had quickly grown into a searing fury. Everywhere the former Holy officer went he found only Kazuma's shadow. The villagers told him their stories and rumors of him. In the wastelands he found only Kazuma's footsteps which led him nowhere. He'd find ruins of rubble he was sure were caused by the Shell Bullet's wrath, but never Kazuma himself. Six months of intense tracking and searching had produced less than nothing.
Quite frankly, it pissed Ryuhou off to no end. He was a trained soldier and a guttersnipe like Kazuma had managed to keep slipping out of his grasp all this time. The bastard's friends were worried about him. HE was even worried about him. The mainland's attacks were becoming more frequent and frenzied. In his opinion, they were going to rally for one last hurrah soon and he had a feeling that when that happened it wouldn't be the kind of battle he'd like to go into alone. Loathe as he was to admit it, he'd need Kazuma's help.
The GPS panel beeped pleasantly, interrupting his increasingly irritated train of thought. His jaw hurt. He'd been grinding his teeth again. Resignedly he glanced over the map now displayed on the LCD panel. To his surprise it placed him within five miles of the village Urizane and Eelian had been living in. His thin brows arched upwards in contentment. Not only was he close to a village but he could check in with his former teammates. They might even know something about Kazuma. He muttered the name contemptuously. That too, had become a habit.
Sure enough, when he crested the hill he'd been creeping up a small, green valley with many small but well tended fields and a tangle of houses came into view. Urizane's village had not only survived raids, but had prospered. He allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up a little in relief. Too many villages he had come across had been either heaps of rubble or on the verge of it. Everywhere he went, though, the people were trying their best. The engine of the jeep gave one last sputter and died as the fuel ran out. Luckily from there on it was downhill and, counting his blessings, Ryuhou, former Holy officer, Alter Capabilist and runaway Kazuma hunter, guided the abused vehicle down the slope and into the town.