Birthright Chapter 10: Beatin' Keaton

Mt. Garou (or 'Wolfskin Peak' as it had come to be known by locals) was a rather imposing figure on Nohr's horizon. Yet the Hoshidans had no choice but to scale the beast, if they had any hope of getting further into Nohr.

Kaze gave a small smile. "Hmm. I have a good feeling about tonight."

Kaaaze…

"Huh?" The ninja looked around.

Silas was there, shrugging. "I didn't say anything."

KAAAAAZE!

"Hmm… I don't think I like the sound of the wind…" Kaze eyed the sky nervously.

KAZE WILL DIIIIIIIE!

Kaze blinked.

"… Nope, definitely don't like the sound of that."

Corrin was sitting on a tree stump, lost in thought. And she felt alone. At least, until Lilith flew out and settled on her lap.

"What's wrong, milady?"

She sighed. "I'm still thinking about what Ryoma said. Now I'm just really wondering who I am. I'm not related to my Nohrian family, and not my Hoshidan family either? Am I related to anyone?!"

Lilith would sweat if she were still human.

"I don't know, Lilith… Is it even a big deal, really? Ugh… families are hard!"

Elsewhere, Ryoma stood by a tree, and showed no surprise when Saizo arrived.

"What's going on, Saizo?"

"Nohrians are blocking all possible paths to the castle."

Ryoma snapped his fingers. "Those fiends! This will be tricky."

"Hey we can ditch Kamui now, right?"

"What? No!" Ryoma folded his arms. "Why would you even ask that?!"

"Well I mean, I didn't trust her, on account of her Nohrian…ness. And now that she's not even affiliated with the royal family, I kind of figured…"

"As far as I care, she still is. Now, let's get ready to climb the mountain. There aren't any soldiers, so what's the worst that could happen?"

Saizo merely shrugged.

"C'mon, boy, you can make it! Who's a good horse? Who's a good horse?" Silas was cheering his steed on, as it attempted to climb the mountain. Mozu sat behind him, and frowned.

"Silas, I don't like the way you're treating the horse."

"He just needs some motivation, he'll be fine. Isn't that right, horse?"

The mount in question whinnied in pain before toppling over.

"Whoa!"

"Oof!"

Izana floated by, riding an energy dragon like a hammock. "So long, suckers!"

Corrin herself was having difficulties with the climb.

"Ugh… and I thought the Everlasting Stairs or whatever were awful…" She stopped and looked up ahead. "Not even halfway up the slope…"

Hinoka and her Pegasus were up ahead, but the princess caught sight of Corrin. Quickly, she directed her horse to fly down to Corrin's position. "Hey Kamui, uh…" She had not spoken to Corrin since before the reveal. "Do you need a ride?"

"… No…" Corrin resumed her trek, losing her breath. "I don't… want to be… more of a burden… on you."

Hinoka's eyes widened. "Huh?! Kamui, you were never-"

"Ahem." Hinoka was startled by the sudden appearance of Jakob. "I'm sorry, but Lady Corrin has asked me to keep you and the rest from speaking to her."

"Rrrg… It's not like I knew the secret or anything! And her name is Kamui!"

Jakob shrugged. "Not my problem."

"Ugh! How does she even put up with you?!"

"Simple," Jakob gave a pleasant smile. "Lady Corrin is my liege. Therefore, she has my undivided devotion."

The Sky Knight shook her head as she prepared to fly back up. "And here I thought my Sakura's retainer had your devotion."

"H-hey!" But Jakob's flustered rebuttal went ignored, Hinoka had already left.

Further up the hill, Oboro was walking beside Takumi. "Lord Stud McCool-"

"Don't you start!"

"How did archery with Kamui go? You seem upset." Her face transformed into an awful glare. "If she did anything to upset you, just say the word-"

"We didn't have training, Oboro." He sighed. "We were finally getting along, and Ryoma had to go and ruin it…"

Eventually, the army had finally reached the top of the mountain. Everyone was tired, Oboro even fell onto the ground to rest. Though there were two exceptions…

"Woo! Yeah! We made it!" Scarlet cheered. "Victory dance!"

"I was born ready!" Izana ran up to Scarlet. "Who starts, you or me?"

"Hey, what's going on?" a new voice asked. Everyone looked over and found some sharp-dressed men. Most wore red hoods, but the apparent leader did without. His hair was black, with a generous white streak. And all of these men had bushy tails and animal ears. "Well? What? Ya find any good trash or something? Or the Bone Hole? I miss that place…"

Izana chuckled. "Heh! He said 'miss.'"

Sakura was shivering. "T-Takumi who are these monsters?!"

"What? How should I know?!"

"Y-you're always hunting!"

"What, so I know all about Nohr's wild creatures now?" Takumi rolled his eyes. Sakura's eyes began to water.

"I'm sorry Takumi!"

"Uh, I mean- oh don't cry!"

Silas looked around excitedly. "All right! I can say something important!" He cleared his throat. "These guys are Wolfskins. They're pretty much Nohrian Kitsune. Only they're wolves instead of foxes."

The leading Wolfskin folded his arms. "Yeah. And I'm Keaton. I'm better than all of you, you just don't know it yet." His eyes went fierce. "And don't try to poach us for our fur, or else we'll eat you!"

Corrin gasped. "You eat people?! But you look so much like a people! … Person. So much like a person. Ugh, I'm forgetting Nohrian language…"

The wolfman's face flushed red. "W-well it's not like they were tasty or anything! … Baka."

"That's our word," Takumi pointed out. "And we don't even want your fur!"

"I kind of want his fur," Izana said.

"I SAID WE DON'T WANT YOUR FUR!"

Keaton actually looked offended at that. "What, my fur's not good enough for you?! Is that it?! What's that ratty old pelt you've got draped over your butt? Bet it's not half as soft as my fur!"

Oboro stood right back up from her resting position and pointed at Keaton. "Now you listen here, you… admittedly fashionable flea motel! Lord Takumi is the pinnacle of archer fashion! I designed his clothes myself!"

"Grrr, boss, they're taunting us!" one of the other Wolfskins declared. Keaton nodded.

"Yeah. They think they're too good for us! They want to be martyrs and convince us they don't even want our fur! Of course they do! And since they know that and we know that, it means we're back to square one! Meaning, they want our fur! And are we gonna let them take it?!"

"NO SIR!" the two Wolfksins cried.

"That's what I like to hear!" Keaton pointed a finger at the Hoshidans. "We're not letting you get away with this, Hoshidans! You and your mind powers, trying to make us think you don't want our fur!"

Azura blinked. "… Is this really happening?"

"Oh you'd better believe it, lady!" Keaton immediately howled. "Ha! I just told all the best fighters in our den to get ready for combat! We'll be seeing you!"

With that, Keaton and his lackeys ran off. Everyone just stayed and contemplated the events that had just happened.

Silas nodded. "I like the cut of his jib."

Trying to navigate the forest and evade the Wolfskins proved difficult for the Hoshidans. Just like in Mokushu, the forest had split everyone into smaller groups.

"Okay, we have to stop going into forests," Kaze said. "They're clearly our worst weakness."

"Rrgh!" Saizo was sitting by a tree, his arm bleeding out.

"Gah! Saizo! When did you get hurt?!"

"I'm a ninja, Brother. Even when I get grievously wounded, it's done in secret."

Kaze sighed. "Hold on. Felicia was following us. She should be able to heal you."

"NO!"

"Hm?"

"Don't let that woman anywhere near me, Kaze…"

The younger twin shook his head. "Saizo, now is not the time to be prejudiced."

"It's not that," Saizo said. "Okay, it's a little bit of that. But more importantly, she's a horrible maid! I wouldn't put it past her to accidentally poison me."

"Oh stop being dramatic."

"You think she wouldn't?!" Saizo's injured right eye opened, revealing its stark whiteness. "Remember when she set the kitchen on fire? Or how half the army's clothes had holes in them after she did the laundry?"

"Well…"

"She's a menace! Honestly, bad enough we have to keep Kamui and Azura around, but Felicia too? I don't even know what Kamui and that butler see in her!"

A sniffle took both ninja out of their conversation. Felicia had caught up to them. Kaze winced. "Oh, see what you do, Saizo?!" He stepped closer to the maid. "Felicia, don't worry, Saizo is always kind of-"

"He's a jerkface!"

"You can't even see my face!" Saizo countered.

Felicia ran past them, sniffling as the air got colder. She dropped the Mend staff she was dragging behind herself. Kaze walked over to pick it up, sighing.

"Real mature of you, Saizo."

"I didn't even notice her showing up. Hmm, she might have some value as a ninja…"

Kaze hung his head back. "You have a problem!"

"Back! Back you beasts!" Silas was fending off some Wolfskins with a naginata.

"Silas you took my naginata," Mozu said.

"Not now, Mozu! I'm saving us!"

"Grrr! Take my fur! No wait, don't take it! … But at least try to take it!"

"I said back!"

Scarlet and Sakura were watching from a distance. Normally, they would rush in to help… but it was Silas.

"I don't trust him," Scarlet told Sakura. "He just seems a little too airheaded. He's faking."

The shrine maiden nervously shook her head. "No I think it's real. But I think he just has brain d-damage."

"Brain damage?"

"First it was because he insisted that he knew Kamui, but she'd forgotten him. After that… well, his behavior just makes more sense when you s-see it like that."

Scarlet put a finger to her chin. "I'unno. I think he's up to something."

Silas successfully fought off the Wolfskin.

"Aha! Now we can breathe easy, Mozu."

The freckled farmer blinked. "… My hero."

Azura was keeping pace with Corrin as they walked through the woods.

"I think Hinoka's trying to tell you something."

"I told Jakob to keep her busy."

Azura sighed. "You can't keep ignoring them."

"I'm not trying to ignore them! I just… I just want to know who I am now! But between the fortress, the mountain, and now these wolf men-" a Wolfskin lunged for Corrin, but she sidestepped- "I haven't had time to think! And don't think I forgot about your curse!"

The singer rolled her eyes. "What are you, my mother? I told you I'll be fine."

"Kamui!"

Hinoka and her horse landed right next to the albino princess, much to the latter's dismay. "Kamui, we're settling this!"

"Fine! I want it to be settled!" Corrin claimed, followed with a sigh. "Look. As much as it hurts you, I loved Xander, Camilla, Leo and Elise. And I still do! I know it wasn't your fault, but they were family to me. And I turned my back on them!" She gritted her teeth. "I turned my back on them because I couldn't stand King Garon's cruelty. But… I also wanted to get to know my blood family." She hung her head in defeat. "But it turns out my only blood family already died in my arms."

Hinoka glared. "So what if we're not related by blood?! You're still my little sister! I became a Sky Knight to save you from Nohr, and I'd do it again!"

The songstress nodded. "Yeah Corrin. You at least have a family, what about me?"

"Ugh!" Hinoka's frustration took Azura by surprise. "Stop saying we don't care about you! For your information…" The princess cleared her throat. "You were born on March 3rd. You're a restless sleeper. You sometimes practice a naginata because you saw me doing it when we were younger, but were too nervous to tell me- by the way that's awesome! Ahem… Your favorite scary story is the one about a man saving his brother from the haunted house. The only time you're ever actually mad is when someone makes fun of your singing. One time the servants thought you were a ghost in the hallway, but you never bothered to explain yourself. Your-"

"Okay, I get it, you know things about me."

"Because I care! We all do! You know Ryoma and Sakura are always bugging you to talk with them! Even Takumi told me he wanted to spend more time with you lately!" She frowned. "You're both my sisters just as much as Sakura is! Kamui, you should know us by now, do we seem like the kind of people who'd stop caring about you if we knew the truth?"

"No… That wasn't it," Corrin said. "It's just…" She sighed. "Well, what would you think if you just found out that you weren't the person you thought you were?" She glared. "Because it happened to me twice! Every time I get comfortable with myself, it turns out I'm a different person than I thought! First I'm the Second Princess of Nohr. No wait! I'm the Second Princess of Hoshido! No wait! I'm just a little girl Mikoto dragged with her from who-knows-where!"

Corrin started feeling a headache, and clutched her head. "Gah! Was she even my mother?! What if I was just some child she found one day?!" Corrin looked up to face Hinoka, now with tears streaming down her face. "I don't know who I am anymore…"

She shuddered, frustrated in herself for starting to cry. The young woman shut her eyes tight, and was surprised when she felt Hinoka's arms around her shoulders.

"You're my sister."

Azura spoke up. "Corrin. Take it from someone who's also been a princess of two kingdoms: It's not important where you come from. It's in the past. Maybe that's easy for me to say since I hate my past, but in the present we're here on Mt. Garou. You're here with a family that loves you…" She turned her head down. "And I guess they love me too…"

"… You're right," Corrin conceded. She squirmed out of Hinoka's embrace in order to grab Azura and include her. "You're both right. Thanks for talking some sense into me."

The Wolfskin who had previously lunged at Corrin watched, wiping tears from his eyes.

"That was beautiful…" He sniffed. "Almost makes me forget that they're supposed to be poaching me."

Jakob ran up to the scene, out of breath.

"Ugh… phew… Apologies, Lady Corrin… The Hoshidan princess has a Pegasus… and I do not…"

The group hug ended, and Corrin faced her butler.

"It's okay, Jakob. Everything's good now. I know who I am and what my place is."

The butler nodded. "Very well. If you are pleased, I am pleased, Lady Corrin."

Nodding, she turned to her sisters. "Let's get off this mountain. Oh, and Jakob…"

"Yes?"

"… Call me 'Kamui.'"

"This is insane!" Oboro cried. She and Takumi were back-to-back, fighting off giant, bipedal wolf monsters.

"The Wolfskins sure are proud of their fur…" Takumi fired an arrow, hitting one of the beasts and making it revert to humanoid form. The offender whimpered and ran off.

Izana was standing in place, seemingly unaware of a Wolfskin approaching from behind. Oboro, however, seemed to notice.

"Archduke Izana, there's one behind you!"

"Eh I figured. But I've been theorizing. What if there is some alternate timeline," Izana began, "and what if, in that timeline, you die? But that's also the happiest of all reachable timelines? I'm not saying my death would be connected to that happiness, but you never know…"

Takumi glared. "Why are you thinking about this now?!"

"Oh just Izana thoughts!" the archduke dismissed. Takumi was not convinced, but did not press the issue. Instead, he simply aimed Fujin at the wolf behind Izana. "Also I'm buddies with a sharpshooter! I can count on you to take out any unsightly wolves!"

"Or you could actually help!" Oboro shouted.

"Oh don't worry, I read the future, I know I'm getting off this mountain alive, so I can take it easy!" He sat down and started meditating. "Hmm… Hey Takumi, you might want to be careful around the next Wolfskin you fight."

"Whatever."

"Huh. Now I'm alone. That's odd," Ryoma commented.

"Arooooo!" Keaton's nasally bellow echoed through the grove. Ryoma turned around, but instead of Keaton, he was facing another giant wolf monster.

"… Keaton, I presume?"

"Yep. AKA, the last thing you'll see!" The beast took a swing at Ryoma, but the samurai flipped away from the danger and drew Raijinto. "Hold still, meat! I still gotta preemptively kill you before you realize you want my fur!"

"Hmph! Your story's falling apart. First we're tricking you into thinking we don't want your fur. Now we have yet to realize we want it? If you wanted an excuse to hunt us, at least be forward!"

"Hey, we can't help that our fur is irresistible!" Keaton's beast form got down on all fours. "Go on, feel it! It's soft! I won't even bite you, free pet!" He raised his head. "Okay I might bite a little."

"Ha!"

Ryoma swung Raijinto, and a lightning bolt hit the Wolfskin dead on.

"Awoooo!"

In pain, Keaton reverted to his human form. "Aaah… Humans… don't know when to quit…"

Ryoma smirked. "That's my specialty, actually."

"Well I have a secret weapon! I knew that picking up random objects would come in handy!" Keaton stood up and pulled out a special bauble. "It's called a Master Seal! I've been saving it for a rainy day!" He held the seal up high and howled. A sacred, blinding light showered him.

"Gah! You fiend!" When Ryoma could see again, Keaton looked hardly any different. His white shirt was replaced with a red one. "Um… Is that it?"

"No…" Keaton smirked and transformed into his beast mode again. It was even more monstrous than before, with patches of red fur. "Now it is!" He quickly grabbed Ryoma with both hands before the samurai could do anything. "All right, I wonder what Hoshidan tastes like!"

"LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!"

Keaton and Ryoma looked over and saw a stampeding dragon headed right for them.

"Uh-oh."

The dragon rushed right for Keaton and pounded him with her front legs. The Wolfssegner recoiled in pain and dropped Ryoma. Then she whipped her tail around, knocking Keaton to the ground, and unleashed a mighty roar of water, blasting Keaton far away.

"You'll be after my fur somedaaaaaay!" were Keaton's parting words.

"Phew…" The battle was won, and the dragon took this chance to revert to her own humanoid form.

Ryoma walked up to his sister. "Thank you, Kamui. I'd hate to imagine what that… man? Animal? Whatever, I'm glad he didn't eat me."

Kamui smiled.

"Don't worry about it."

As it turned out, several of the straggling Wolfskins caught Kamui's battle with Keaton. Intimidated by her power, they all backed off. This freed the Hoshidans to catch their breaths, albeit with one eye open.

Kamui herself stood by a cliff, as Kaze walked up next to her.

"Piece of gold for your thoughts?"

"… Wolfskins are weird."

Kaze shrugged. "Well they are different than humans. What's normal to us might be weird for them."

CRASH!

Suddenly, the ground fell out from under Kamui. She gasped and tried to get to solid land, but failed. Only with Kaze's quick response was the princess spared an untimely demise. But now they had the problem of Kaze struggling to hold onto the princess.

"Grr… heavy…"

Kamui blushed. "Okay I admit it; I might've been eating more than usual…"

"Not… that! Ugh…"

They hung there for a while.

"Well, just in case we die, I should probably reveal a secret of my own."

Kamui rolled her eyes. "Just how many of you guys are holding something back from me?!"

"Well in this case, I actually went with you and the others to Cheve. But…" Kaze winced, and then sighed. "I saw the Nohrian spies and didn't say anything. So we walked into their ambush."

"What?!"

"I didn't know they were suspicious! I'd never seen a Nohrian before! But yeah, your entire life's path might be sort of my fault."

There was a moment of silence between the two.

"… Well thank you for telling me, Kaze. But you were a kid, weren't you?"

"Eh, preteen."

"So a kid then."

"Well if you want to take away what dignity I had!"

"You never have dignity, Kaze! You're always trying to be humble and self-blaming!"

Kaze was about to counter, but fell short. "… Okay, you got me there."

Then, as though the weight were too much, Kaze slipped off the cliff as well.

"Whooooa!"

"AAAH!"

The two fell for a short distance, before Kaze was able to grab onto a small branch. Unfortunately, this kept the two of them suspended over a chasm. "… Definitely thinking I should've listened to that ominous wind earlier."

"Kaze… Let me go."

"I'm not letting you be a martyr, milady."

"No, nothing like that!" Kamui scanned her surroundings. "I just thought that maybe I could try turning into a dragon and flying!"

"Can you even fly as a dragon?"

"I… was going to get around to testing that…"

"Kamui! Kaze!" Hinoka's voice cut through the air. The two looked over and saw the Sky Knight herself, flying right toward them. "Hang in there!"

The ninja rolled his eyes. "Like I have a choice?" The ground shook. "Oh boy. … Hey Lady Kamui, how do you feel about flying as a human?"

"What are-"

"HERE YOU GO!"

With all the strength he could muster, Kaze flung Kamui into the air, toward Hinoka.

"Aaaah! Kaze, what are you doing?!"

"Aah! I've got you, Kamui!" Hinoka held out her arms and actually managed to catch her sister. "Kaze, you're next!"

The cliff shook again, and Kaze winced. "… Well that figures."

With that, the cliff crumbled and Kaze fell into the abyss. Hinoka tried to have her horse follow, but between the falling rocks and trying to carry her sister, it was impossible. Kaze was gone.

At dawn the next day, Kamui was sitting on a plateau on the downward slope. This time, she was much further from the edge, and Hinoka was there with her.

"… Hinoka? Kamui?"

The princesses looked back and saw Ryoma joining them. "Still waiting for him to come back?"

Kamui sighed. "Kaze always comes back! I mean, is falling down a cliff really worse than some of the hits I've seen him take?"

"He might've survived, who really knows?" Ryoma shrugged. "But there's something else. Azura and I were talking. I don't believe I properly apologized for before." The samurai walked over and sat down by Kamui, on the side opposite Hinoka. "Kamui… I apologize for lying to you all this time. I thought I was honoring Father's wishes, but… to hear the stress it put you through…"

"It's in the past, Ryoma…" Kamui said, her voice was tired from waiting all night. "All we have is what's ahead of us…"

Ryoma looked ahead. To his surprise, the Nohrian landscape did not look like a nightmarish wasteland. Rather, it was a normal countryside. Forests, hills and mountains. He then looked over and caught the thousand-yard stare his stepsister had adopted, as did Hinoka.

"… Kamui, I think it's time we get going. If Kaze's out there, he'll find a way back." Hinoka told her. "He's kind of like a dog that way."

The half-dragon closed her eyes, tiredly. "I guess you're right."

To be continued.

Post-Script A/N:

I'm more proud of the chapter title than I should be.

And thus we resolve Corrin's family issues with the Hoshidans. Symbolic of that, she's now referred to as Kamui. While I prefer her English name, I felt that it was time for her to accept her Hoshidan identity (at least in this story). Apologies if usage of the name bugs you, but it's staying. I was originally going to do that four chapters ago, but this seems like a more appropriate time. I might slip and narrate her as 'Corrin' a few times, but hey.

Sorry if the chapter wasn't too funny, but I thought it was important to address Corrin's issue. In the meantime, I completely changed Keaton's reason for fighting. In the game, he thinks you're trying to poach him. In this... he wants you to try poaching him. Keaton's kind of emotionally needy. (Fun fact, while there are no children in the story, I once planned for a cub version of Velouria to appear, but scrapped it.)

As for Kaze... He might be dead, or he might not. I did write an epilogue to the chapter about Keaton pestering Kaze with a game of I Spy (and spying Kaze over and over), but I removed that scene, so I'm leaving it open to interpretation. For now. I'll say that Keaton definitely survived though, all he did was get washed away by some water.

In the next chapter, we'll reunite with one of Corrin's favorite people.