CHAPTER 10:
INTROSPECTION
Shino shook her head as she watched Itami chatting away with a slightly plump, glasses-wearing woman in the hotel bar. "Jeez, I still can't believe he was once married, and they divorced on good terms," Shino remarked. "Seriously, you don't hear about divorces that go that well. He still looks after her."
"Risa is apparently a doujinshi artist," Mari said. "That's apparently how they got together. And just because they're no longer husband and wife doesn't mean they can't be friends."
"Yeah, I know, and she seems pretty nice, even if she looks as much as a nerd as he does or Kurata. But still…actually, I can sooner believe him being on good terms with an ex-wife than what Komakado told me about the Ranger or SF training. Though did you notice how Pina and Bozes perked up when Itami explained what yaoi was? Who'd have thought that those two were into Boys Love stuff? You'd think coming from a Roman slash medieval society, they'd be repelled by that."
"Don't be too sure," Hermione said. "Bisexuality was rather widespread in Ancient Greek society, and even Roman society. If our hunch is right and part of the Empire was founded by remnants of the Lost Legion…"
"Bisexuality is accepted amongst my people," Tuka said. "I believe amongst humans, it's not as accepted per se."
"Same out here," Shino said. "Hell, gay rights are still gaining a foothold here in this world. Personally, I don't give a crap, as long it's consensual and all that. Anyway, talking at the Diet aside, how're you liking Earth so far, Tuka?"
"It's…interesting, I have to say. I still prefer my home, as well as Coda…but there are many wonders here, I have to say," Tuka said. "And this hotel makes the inns and taverns back home pale by comparison. Why, this has more rooms than a palace! And this city is only one of thousands on this world, you said?"
Hermione nodded. "Harry and I lived not far from the city of London. Like Tokyo, it's the capital city of the country we lived in, Britain." Anything further that she intended to say was cut off when they heard Rory.
"What do you mean, you won't give me any drinks?!"
"Miss, you're clearly underaged," the bartender said to the irritated Apostle. "There's plenty of soft drinks I can serve you, and…"
"I. Want. Alcohol," Rory snarled quietly. "And I'm over 900 years old!"
Mari sighed, and went over to Rory, looking at the bartender apologetically. "Sorry about her, but she's going through a phase." She then mouthed, "Chuunibyou," at the bartender, whose mouth opened in an 'O' of comprehension(1).
"W-What did you just call me?" Rory demanded. "I am the Apostle of Emroy, not some delusional teenager!"
"And you're making a scene most unbefitting of a priestess," Mari hissed quietly as she led Rory away from the bar. "Just wait until you're back at Alnus Hill. Or would you like a surprise medical examination? I daresay you need vaccinations."
"NOOO! NOT THE NEEDLES! YOU SO-CALLED MODERN DOCTORS ARE BARBARIANS!"
Shino sighed. "There goes Mother Hen Mari. Doesn't matter that she's younger than me, Tuka, or even Rory. She acts older. I think Harry said she was a bit like Pomfrey or whoever the healer at your old school was, Hermione."
"I think Mari's a bit kinder, honestly," Hermione said. "Anyway, would Rory's skin be pierced by needles?"
"She can still get injured like a normal person," Tuka said. "But she has a strong regenerative ability. All Apostles do. Lelei would know more."
The women turned in their seats to see Lelei where she was sitting with Tomita and Harry (as well as a sulky Rory), the two men looking protective towards the teenaged witch as she read a book, sipping on a glass of juice. "Jeez, this is surreal. I'm here in a bar, with an Elf, a princess of the Empire that attacked us, and a few mages, and my best friend just dissed an ancient demigoddess who looks like a Gothic Lolita," Shino snarked. "I'm still too sober for this."
"Shino, you're still technically on duty, or at least in public view," Mari said as she sat back next to them. "Remember, even after…no, especially after that stunt Rory pulled in the Diet, the press are keeping an eye out for any further antics. It's only thanks to Komakado that we've not been bothered already, I'd bet."
"We still got that overly made-up hyena to back off, though, right?" Shino said. "I'll give Itami this much, when push comes to shove, he's professional enough. It's the rest of the time that bugs me. But Kuraha just despises the JSDF, period. Does she think the Yanks will come to save us if we don't have the JSDF? Not in time, I'd bet. Then again, being deployed to the Special Region still reeks of Iraq and Afghanistan to me."
"Sorry?" Tuka asked. "Are those other countries?"
Hermione nodded. "There's been a couple of controversial wars going on in those countries. Then again, the whole War on Terror is controversial."
On Tuka's still confused look, Shino said, "Remember how a lot of those bandits claimed to be sacrificing those they killed at Italica to Emroy, and they didn't really care that much whether they lived or died in the process? I'd reckon most of them would be considered terrorists here. Terrorists generally attack civilians for their own agenda. Political, religious…and sometimes, I think they just get off on the violence and just dress it up with another agenda. Anyway, the War on Terror here is against terrorists. And going against them…well, you have a monster on your world called a hydra? Cut off one head and more take its place?"
Tuka nodded, albeit horrified at the concept. "Is Japan safe?"
"Relatively. Not that we haven't had our share of terrorist attacks before September 11," Shino said, grimacing. "I remember being afraid to go on the subway to school anymore after the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks(2)."
"You and me both," Mari said. "I won't pretend our world is perfect, Tuka, or our country is perfect. In fact, the reason why we have a Self-Defence Force instead of an actual army is because we did some pretty nasty stuff back during World War II. But we're trying to be better, become better."
"Well, from what I've seen, you're doing a good job so far," Tuka said, rather guilelessly. Then again, despite her advanced age compared to the rest of them, her psyche was very much that of an older teenager, something of an ingénue. Certainly, while she had lost some of her innocence along with her village, she hadn't quite lost her naivety.
"We hope so," Shino muttered. "I hope so…but enough about that crap. I remember Harry saying you had a singing voice. And methinks I spy a karaoke machine over there. Come on!"
Rory was pouting. "That's one disadvantage of being on another world," she grumbled. "They don't know or respect me. Ugh, it's so not fair."
"Is you getting drunk at all a good idea?" Harry asked, looking askance at the petite Apostle.
"Yes," Rory said vehemently. Then, her face fell somewhat. "Harry, I'm 961 years old. Drinking may not allow me to forget the pain and horrors I have seen, but it helps numb it." She leaned into Harry gently, closing her eyes. "I know you saw my reaction to bloodshed and violence in Italica. And there are many things I like about it. But there have been atrocities I have witnessed that I wish I could forget. Even the mists of time haven't done enough to erode those memories. Do you know what the smell of a vat filled with acid smells like, especially after it's had corpses in it for weeks? There was a time when Emroy bade me to deal with a troublesome necromancer who was experimenting with distilling lifeforce, trying to forcibly become like an Apostle, and one of his experiments was a vat filled with acid that he dropped people into alive. I will never forget that smell. Or the sights of a brothel where bandits sold children to for people with a taste for them? Sadly, I've come across that a dozen times and more in my service to Emroy. Sometimes, when I curse this childish body of mine, of the times I felt pain, of Hardy pursuing me…I remember those children. I think back that, if it weren't for Emroy choosing me, perhaps I could have ended up like them."
Harry gently hugged the Apostle, as if she was a sibling. "You've seen a lot."
"Too much. Immortality is wonderful, and I would only trade it for another chance to be with my parents. But it does have its downsides. The longer the life you lead, the greater the list of the horrors you witness and perpetrate, the longer the tally of mistakes you made, and the regrets that go with them. Is it any wonder I want to drink? Emroy may be a god of calamity and insanity…but that doesn't mean he is one of true horror. As I said, the motive to kill is the truly important part." She looked at Pina and Bozes, who were in conversation with each other, while Hodor was speaking to Itami and his ex-wife. "People say that the Apostles, being the instruments of divine will, are as capricious and inscrutable as natural phenomena, set apart from normal people. For some, they stay apart from people because they get fed up of having people die, leaving them alone. I try to be sociable, even if some fear me, including those who have done no wrong. Because you can still make new friends, even after the old ones die or go away."
"I never truly considered you to be so philosophical, Rory," Lelei said, looking up from her book. "I know you are a priestess, and an Apostle, but…"
"Yeah, I know. Most people know me as Rory Mercury, or Rory the Reaper. I am either a priestess, or else a relentless monster in the form of a prepubescent girl. Admittedly, not all Apostles are as introspective. I know for a fact that bitch Giselle isn't. No, she's just a happy little instrument of Hardy. I dunno about Zufmuut's Apostle Mabel Forn, though if she's anything like the ancestor I once knew…in any case, not many people know me well enough to know more about me than my duties as an Apostle."
"You do it out of duty, right?" Tomita asked, the burly soldier looking at the Apostle.
"Yes. I have my duty to my god, just as you do to your country," Rory said. "Harry has a more abstract sense of duty, a desire to help people. I'm not saying myself or the JSDF soldiers I have met don't have that, but Harry's ties to the JSDF are looser, based on family and friendship rather than comradeship."
"Hermione calls it my 'saving people thing'," Harry said quietly. "Ginny…I guess you could call her my ex, once said I wouldn't be happy if I didn't have Voldemort to pursue. She was wrong in one way…but right in another. I need a cause to fight for to define me. Helping the people of Falmart fills that need."
Rory raised an eyebrow, before indicating Tuka and Shino as they went over to the karaoke machine. "I think there's another need you should fill soon. Now, she may not show it as much as Tuka does, but I think Shino wants you."
"…So, I'm going to have to make a choice?"
"Maybe. Or maybe not. Take Shino there. Oh, a veritable Valkyrie of Emroy. I asked about that music they played at Italica, and what Valkyries were. I'm sure that if I was not the Apostle of Emroy already, then he'd be choosing her. For a woman whose country doesn't have a true army, she lives and breathes combat, and yet, is no simple, obedient soldier. She has compassion in her soul. And then, there's Tuka. Elves are rather like the best kind of ornamental weapon: a thing of beauty, one that will last for centuries, and yet, beneath that beauty is a deadliness when combat comes. Elves may generally have peaceful lives, but they are still warriors. Plus, you know what they say about the quiet ones." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Harry looked her up and down, before remarking, "You know, that sort of remark reminds me of my late godfather. Are you sure you're not his reincarnation or something, stuck in the body of a pre-teen girl?"
"Harry, if I was, I wouldn't have the urge to bed you or Itami myself. Sadly, you and Itami have principles, and I have, as you put it, the body of a pre-teen girl," Rory said. "Anyway, Tuka's willing to have Shino in the relationship as well as you. It's you two that have the hang-ups about polyamory. And I think, even if she won't admit it yet, Shino will be willing to share with Tuka. Call it a hunch born of experience."
"…Are you just messing with me?" Harry asked.
"I believe she is deadly serious," Lelei said.
"I'd say strike when the iron is hot," Rory said, "but you and Shino like to do this little dance around each other, and you've only known Tuka for a little while. Still…I think there's actual love beginning to bloom. Well, lust too, but I can tell when there's more than infatuation going on…"
Rory's words stuck with Harry as he lay in bed, trying to get to sleep that night. The hotel bed was comfortable, one of the most, if not THE most, comfortable beds he had slept in since Hogwarts. But it still couldn't help calm the maelstrom of his thoughts.
He didn't know it, but in other rooms in the hotel, Shino and Tuka had similarly troubled thoughts. Doubts and hesitations towards desires. Questions whether they were doing the right thing.
Still, steps had been taken, tentative, hesitant steps. And they would soon come to a head…
CHAPTER 10 ANNOTATIONS:
So, more character development, with Rory getting to show off both her childish sides and her older, more philosophical sides. I think at Mount Hakone, we'll have, instead of a bunch of foreign special forces soldiers, we'll have something a bit more…characterful…
Also…RIP Stan Lee. :(
Review-answering time! rmarcano321: Aside from the fact that there needs to be more Potterverse/GATE crossovers? I don't think there was a single inspiration for this particular fic.
Blaze1992: It doesn't happen in the anime, but it does gradually happen in the light novels and manga. I think the earthquake in episodes 13 and 14 is the first symptom of the problems with the Gate. If I recall what I've read about the series correctly, Hardy actually gives Lelei the ability to open temporary Gates at will, albeit in a draining way.
secretwhovianpony: Sod's Law (AKA Finagle's Law) is basically the pessimistic version of Murphy's Law. While Murphy's Law can be stated that 'anything that can go wrong, will go wrong', it was actually more like, 'if there's more than one way to do something, and one way will lead to a cock-up, then someone will do it the cock-up way' (Edward Murphy stated something like that after it was discovered that a sensor used for G-Force testing was wired up incorrectly). Sod's Law basically says, 'anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong, at the worst possible time'. Now do you see why some people claim that Murphy was an optimist?
1. A chuunibyou is basically a way of saying someone has delusions of grandeur, being overly dramatic and making out that they have powers. It translates more or less to 'eighth grader syndrome'.
2. Aum Shinrikyo was a cult that, infamously, perpetrated a terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, using sarin nerve gas. This wasn't the first time this happened either, with the cult using the same chemical weapon in Matsumoto the year before, though another man was originally blamed until the subway attack.
