Series: Paladin's Quest||Title: Rebirth of Kaiser
Characters: Ryou, Yuusuke||Ship: N/A
Chapter: 2/30||Words: 4,202
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Challenges: Diversity Writing Challenge: YGO GX: canon: K5, 20+ chapters; Slots: 2,000-67,000, 1st person past tense, rated T, reincarnation, gen-fic; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #44, fade; Epic Big Bang
Notes: N/A
He opened his eyes to the same view that he'd had for the last few years: a simple wooden roof. After the night of dreams he'd had, it didn't seem right somehow.
It should be white. With blue trim.
He closed his eyes again, focusing on the here and now, not on the snippets of dreams that refused to stay in his memory long enough for him to understand them. When he opened his eyes again, he recognized the roof as his own, and the familiar sense of home folded in around him.
Slowly he sat up and looked around. Everything remained in the usual place: his favorite jacket on the chair next to the bed, along with his boots. He'd washed his other clothes the day before and they hung outside, drying.
There really wasn't much to where he lived. One single room, with different parts divided for what he needed. A bed over here, a place to keep his clean clothes – what few he had of those – and a little space with a second chair, for those irregular times he entertained visitors.
Sunlight peeked in through the window, along with a faint gust of wind. He breathed in carefully, not surprised to catch the scent of snow. Winter wasn't that far away. He would have to take out the extra blankets soon.
Often after he had those nights full of dreams, it was hard to get going in the morning. The dreams sometimes stuck around, if only in the sense that he needed to be somewhere else, that this place was a good and pleasant home, but there was somewhere else.
Today wasn't one of those days. Today he dressed and headed out for the dining hall with only the faintest flickers of thought about those dreams, and those faded as soon as he stepped outside into the sun.
"Morning!" One of the local sentries waved as he passed by them. He thought it wasn't legal to be that chipper in the morning. He certainly never was.
But he raised a hand in greeting regardless. No one would be offended. Everyone here, after the last several years, knew what he was like in the mornings.
He reminds me of someone... He wasn't sure of who. He didn't remember ever having seen someone like that before. There weren't many of his type around. But the hint remained all the same.
Had he ever known a Shine Angel before? If he had, it remained lost in the deep darkness that was all he had in his memory prior to the first time he'd opened his eyes in this world.
He shrugged that off, as he always did, and made his way into the dining hall for breakfast, silently greeting a few others along the way. He wouldn't call them friends – he didn't think he had friends, but there were people he wasn't averse to spending time around – but these were at least comfortable acquaintances.
The longer he was in the hall, the more gossip he could here. He wasn't often fond of the gossip, but it gave him something to listen to, and it could be useful on occasion.
Such as what he heard now.
"He's coming. It's that time of year anyway." The tiny fairy bobbed in the air, morning bowl of stew held between small hands. Tiny eyes shifted over toward him. "You know that, don't you?"
One eyebrow tilted upward. "I might. If you told me who you're talking about."
The fairy – Pixie Guardian – blew air out, wings fluttering in annoyance. "Weren't you listening?" Before he could give an answer, the pixie kept going. "The Herald is coming! You know, he comes every year about this time?"
Oh. Right. He shouldn't have forgotten that, but the vague unrest sparked by the dreams drove it out of his mind, at least for now. He shrugged.
"I suppose he does."
No one knew a great deal about the Herald, only what rumors and legends painted. He looked young, perhaps just coming into full maturity, but there was a dark sort of wisdom in his eyes. He wandered every world known, and quite likely a few that weren't known, and offered help wherever it was needed.
And every year, as winter drew around, he came to this little collection of huts and homes and spent about a week or so. He'd never said why and no one had the nerve to ask him.
The Herald's face, with wide brown eyes and a worried expression, was the first thing that he remembered in a memory that contained only a handful of years. That voice was the first one he remembered hearing, asking how he felt.
The Herald's Voice was also the one he remembered as giving him his name. Just thinking of that moment sent shivers of confusion all through him.
Ryou.
He could not forget that moment, whatever else he forgot or remembered.
His eyes opened and he pulled in a breath of air so clean it seemed like it might come from the dawn of the world itself. He jerked himself up, staring in all directions, before he sank back down, hands rising to press against his own skin, as if he'd never felt it before.
If he had, he didn't remember. He didn't remember anything at all save the last few moments.
"Hey."
He turned at the voice, staring at someone that he hadn't realized was there. The stranger – everyone was a stranger to him – sat on a rock, a bag in his lap, with a large furry creature seated next to him. Next to him was another creature, this one quite tall, with a broad set of wings, and three eyes that were each of a different color.
"How do you feel?"
He blinked, trying to understand the question. He knew what had been said; that wasn't the problem. But he wasn't sure of how to answer it at first.
Slowly he worked out a word. His first word? Maybe.
"Fine?"
The stranger smiled. "Do you remember anything?" it was a friendly, warm smile, and it warmed him all through to see it.
He had to think again to know how to answer the question. His entire mind felt so empty, as if someone had shaken every bit of knowledge out of it. He frowned, reaching one hand up to touch his forehead.
There were things that he knew and didn't know. He knew roughly what the parts of his body were called and that day followed night and other such common points. He didn't know who he was or where he'd been or what happened to make himself like this.
"Not really," he admitted. He turned back to the stranger who seemed so very ready to be helpful. "Who are you?" Another question followed in quick succession. "Do you know who I am?"
The other glanced up at the being beside him. The look they exchanged was nothing sort of raw sorrow that faded the moment he turned away.
"Your name is Ryou. I'm Juudai, this is Yubel," he gestured to the creature, who nodded in return, and then he rested a hand on the fluffy beast. A cat, Ryou recalled now. A tabby cat. "This is Pharaoh. Daitokuji-sensei's not around right now, though."
That didn't quite make sense, but Ryou suspected it would have if he had all of his memories. Or if he just had memories at all.
"Do you know why I don't remember anything?"
"You've been reborn," Yubel said, interrupting whatever it was Juudai started to say. "It's a rare gift and I suggest you let any memories return at their own pace. If they do at all."
Ryou nodded slowly. He didn't quite understand what they told him, but he didn't find himself with the energy to argue at this point. His stomach made a noise and he stared down at it.
Juudai laughed, a bit of a strange sound, but a laugh all the same. "Come on. There's a village not that far from here we can get some food at. Are you able to walk?"
Ryou decided the only way that he could find out would be to try. He levered his way to his feet, hissing between his teeth when he couldn't be at all certain that they would carry him at first. Then he steadied himself and took a careful step, hands spread out for balance.
Three steps was all it took before he started to fall again, and Juudai caught him before he got all the way to the ground. Once he was steady again, Ryou made another attempt, this one somewhat more successful.
"You'll get the hang of it," Juudai assured him. "Come on, you'll probably feel better once you have some food in you."
Ryou wasn't going to argue on that point. The longer he went without eating, the more certain he became that he could and would eat almost anything set in front of him.
The village they ended up at – Yubel vanished somewhere along the way – wasn't very big; maybe about twenty or twenty-five huts and about the same number carved into the nearby mountain. The place had been built for defense and was surrounded by a thick stone wall twice as tall as Ryou himself – who realized only then that he was taller than Juudai.
A gate allowed entrance, but only after the guard on duty permitted them to pass through. Ryou was too busy staring at it all, soaking it in, to really pay much attention to what Juudai said or did to get them in.
But on the other side, they quickly found the communal eating area, and Ryou had the first meal that he could remember.
This is a good place for you, Juudai told him before he left that first time. I'll come back and see you when I can.
So Ryou settled into the village life without a great deal of problems. There were empty huts or cottages and he moved into one, taking up the position of guard to earn his food and shelter. There were higher-ranked soldiers there, who dueled, and there was always the chance he could join them one day, if he ever learned how.
And yet he hadn't tried. There was a small store one could barter for cards at and he'd investigated there several times over the last handful of years. Not a single card there interested him enough to try it for himself.
Once he finished his breakfast, Ryou wandered out to the main square. Today was one of his rare days without a shift on the guard watch, so he could do as he pleased.
The whole discussion, short as it was, on if the Herald would be returning soon hovered in the back of his mind. The Herald – Juudai – visited whenever his travels brought him around, and he always made time to talk to Ryou when he did.
Exactly why they called him the Herald, Ryou didn't know. He wasn't sure if they didn't know Juudai's name or if it were some other reasons. Some questions he felt compelled to ask – mostly ones that helped him fit in around the village – and some he didn't – usually anything to do with Juudai.
There were times when he thought he already knew things about Juudai, things that no one here did, but he just didn't have the words to express them. He hadn't mentioned that to Juudai, either, during their few conversations.
Now he made his way out of the village and to a place he enjoyed spending his rare free time in: a long, empty meadow with a single stream whispering its way through it. So far as he knew, he was the only one who ever came here. There was a long rock in the center, just enough for him to get comfortable on, and there he settled down, most of his thoughts centered on what he might ask Juudai when he turned up.
The whole time he lay there, though, he couldn't drift himself into the pleasant half-rest that sometimes brought a few thoughts he wanted to call memories back. Instead, there was a prickle of wariness between his shoulder-blades, and he kept looking around for any sign of anyone in the area.
After all these years, she'd finally found him. Rumor from the other worlds painted it that he was dead, but she'd never put much stock in rumors that traveled so far.
If this person wasn't him, then they were close enough for her. And now that she'd found him, she would gain the vengeance she'd spent the last decade planning.
To Be Continued
Notes: I am innocently whistling! (Ryou will get his memories back. But I have Plans for how matters will unfold between now and then.)
