Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia or any of the characters and I'm not making any money off of this. You can still sue me, sure, but there's nothing you could gain from a poor student like me, so I'd rather if you didn't.
Character(s): Yuan, Yggdrasill, Kratos, Remiel.
Rating/Warnings: PG, spoilers.
Word Count (if a fic): 1050
Author's Notes: This little ficlet was written for theTales of Symphonia Challenge Community on LiveJournal. (Prompt #065: Tradition.) It's unbeta-ed, so the grammar may be a bit wacky.

Welcoming Ritual

"Yuan... pray tell, what are you doing?"

Yuan looked up from his work to see Yggdrasill hovering next to him, just above the ground. If there was one thing that annoyed him about the Cruxis leader's preference to float around, it was that there was no sound of footsteps to announce his arrival.

Well. Yggdrasill would have found out eventually. Might as well tell him outright.

"I'm fixing a database computer," he replied touchily and pushed a few buttons. All that came up was gibberish. Nice.

"Fixing it... why?"

Oh, now this was one of Yggdrasill's favorite games, all right. Ask him stupid questions with that calm voice...

"Because it was broken." Yuan knew he was treading on dangerous waters here. It was never a smart idea to annoy Yggdrasill. But, oh, it could be so very satisfying that it was well worth the consequences…

"When?" Yggdrasill continued, hiding his irritation admirably well. Yuan was satisfied at being able to provoke the high and mighty angel leader. Got to be happy about the small victories. "By whom?"

"A couple of hours ago." Now that wasn't a dangerous answer. The next one could turn out to be lethal, however. "...By me."

Yggdrasill, surprisingly, didn't attack him outright but rather gave him an evil glare. All right, fine, he had to give the guy credit for not wanting to strangle him on the spot. He had gained more patience over the years. It was kind of disappointing, though, in a strange kind of way. "How do you manage?"

Yuan answered the glare with one of his own. "I don't get along with these machines. You know that."

"I do. That's why I've told you to stay away from them." Yggdrasill fluttered closer and Yuan quickly got out of his way. "What did you do?"

"Short-circuited it." Better not tell him how, though.

"Lost your patience and cast Indignation on it, did you?"

Damn. So Yggdrasill still had a brain on him. Of course, the sizzling remnants of some of the polycarbonate shields were a dead give-away. Even something meant to defend against magic couldn't stand against a powerful spell cast in a place like Derris-Kharlan, which provided the caster with a huge amount of mana if he knew what he was doing. And because Yggdrasill knew that as well as he did, well... he might save himself some trouble by committing suicide on the spot before Yggdrasill got his hands on him.

"You're a fool." Yuan seriously began to wonder if Yggdrasill had had a lower-rank angel take his shape and come here. There was no way the Cruxis leader would act this calm with the amount of destruction that lay around them and the culprit clearly in his sight. "You couldn't have short-circuited it, or there would be nothing we could do to fix it. And if that was true, you could kiss your life goodbye, no matter what Martel said. If there's a single file that has been lost..."

"It's all there," Yuan replied confidently. None of the files were missing, of course. There were actually more files than there had been… everything had been copied to be used by the Renegades later. Not that Yggdrasill needed to know that. "May I go now? You seem to have got the situation under control here and I still have –"

"Hold." One word was all it took to make Yuan fall silent. How such a brat had gained such power over him still amazed him. Nevertheless, he stood rooted on the spot, cautiously glancing at the screen Yggdrasill was fixing. This wasn't supposed to happen – it wasn't the first time he had screwed up, but it certainly was the first time Yggdrasill had let him off so easily. For some inane reason, it almost felt as though something important had just been skipped.

"…There. That should do it." Yggdrasill finished his work and tapped the screen with one slender finger. "Now we can get to the real problem."

"…Which is?" Yuan asked. As soon as he sawthe smirk on Yggdrasill's face, he knew. He had just enough time to cast Force Field before Yggdrasill finished chanting the incantation for Judgment. The next second he bolted away, Yggdrasill trailing close behind.

It was a crazy and destructive chase around Welgaia, and yet, Yuan found himself grinning triumphantly.

Some things never changed.

-----

"Tch."

Remiel stopped walking as soon as Kratos did, looking at the destruction that lay in front of them. "What happened here?"

"Lord Yggdrasill and Yuan… that's what happened." Kratos didn't sound very happy. "Those two never grow up."

"Wha… why?" Remiel let his gaze wander across the smoldering remnants of molten metal and plastic. "Why would they destroy such important databases?"

"…They don't destroy them. Anymore, at least." Kratos began to walk among the rubble and picked up a piece of a shield. "See? It's polycarbonate. It's there for a reason."

"You don't mean… Has this happened before?" Remiel asked, frowning. Kratos dropped the object he was holding.

"Yes. Quite often, in fact. Though I believe it's been nigh two years since the last time this happened." He raised an eyebrow at the other angel. "Remiel… How long has it been since you became an angel?"

"A little over a year, I believe, Lord Kratos."

A lopsided smirk worked its way onto Kratos' face. "Well then… it was about time."

Remiel was left wondering with a grim foreboding as Kratos disappeared suddenly. A couple of seconds later, the seraph reappeared – holding a broom, a bucket and a mop in his hands.

"It's kind of a welcoming ritual," he offered as an explanation. "Ever since they started this game about a hundred years ago, the newest additions to the angel crowd have taken care of the debris whenever something like this happens. And I'm the one who has to check and reprogram all the databases they've corrupted," he added mostly to himself.

Remiel was too shocked to be able to say anything. Anything he could say to the second-highest ranking person on the whole planet, at least. Kratos shoved the equipment at him, ignoring the indignant look in the angel's eyes.

"It's a tradition," the seraph said, smirking evilly, before he again vanished in a flurry of feathers. "Welcome to Cruxis."