Author's Notes: Important news the end! …I mean, the bottom!

Thanks once again to The Apocryphal One, for helping me out of a slump here. :)

Now, here's to hoping…

"Children Should Be Children"

Dreyza

Military District (East), Fort Devas, Astral Plane

"You know, Dreyza," Hinoka said, looking over at me, "when I look at the both of you, you're almost nothing like your brother."

We were both leaning on the wooden railing on the northern side of the district, looking over the blue, sunless horizon past the castle. We'd just finished racing around Fort Devas—in the air. Hinoka had nearly beaten Subaki near the end, but GreyScale and I had come through in the final lap. (Officially, though, the win would be a tie between the two sky knights. Which I could live with.)

I chuckled at her statement. "Oh, yeah?" I asked her, genuinely curious (though I felt I knew some of the answers already). "What makes you say that?"

The warrior princess rubbed her chin, thinking. "Well, it's…how should I put this…? Well, there's how you both fight. Bluefield seems like he's a self-taught vagrant…makes it up as he goes along. You, on the other hand… It's almost as if you were trained to fight from birth."

I could see where Hinoka was coming from. What with Blu's 37 days stuck at Castle Shirasagi, I guess she would have observed his fighting style at some point.

I looked at her. "You could tell that much?"

"Not just me. Ryoma saw it when he fought you in Cyrkensia. 'A force to be reckoned with,' he told me."

I pursed my lips. "Well…as ashamed as I am to admit it, you're pretty much correct, Your Highness."

Hinoka's expression changed from neutrality, to one of confusion. "I am…?" she asked. "What about?"

The last two words, I noticed, were spoken with caution.

"The being-trained-from-birth thing." I gave her a wry look. "Child soldiers… It's like a recurring theme with most of us Ashen Wolves."

Her eyes went wide, jaw down. "Wh-What?! How?!"

I winced. "The how, I'd rather not talk about. But yeah, I was trained to kill. Same as you."

"Hold on…" An expression of horror dawned across her horizon. "Are you saying that Bluefield wanted—"

No.

"Stop right there, Princess," I warned, my index finger pointing 10 degrees or so away from heavensward. "Bluefield never agreed to us getting kidnapped and almost brainwashed. Hell, it's thanks to him that we never finished our training—that we got out. So don't ever insinuate that he wanted a group of soulless child soldiers."

"I—"

"One other thing: I wouldn't wish anyone to be a child soldier. But I absolutely wouldn't wish my worst enemy to be a Zero. I know Bluefield wouldn't."

"…I…" After a moment, Hoshido's warrior princess looked away. "…I'm sorry, Dreyza. I wasn't thinking straight."

"…no, it's…fine." I leaned back from the railing, hands gripping it anyway as I stared up at the cloudy sky. "I mean, I wouldn't blame Blu if he didn't bring it up. Besides…it wasn't all painful. I got to meet people I wouldn't have ever met otherwise. If anything, I do hate the fact that people tried to decide our lives—our fates—for us. Not like you, Hinoka. You had a choice."

She paused, shaking her head. "…Yes, but… That's…" Then she rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. "…Dammit."

A moment. And then…

"…You know," she began. "I don't think I ever gave it much thought until now—and, I know it's a bit hypocritical of me to say something like this…"

"…Go on…?"

"…but, I don't think anyone should have to become a soldier as a child. Certainly not like I did, being royalty and all. But that aside… Children should be children, you know?"

Well, she did warn me. "Yeah. Wholehearted agreement. But…do you regret your choice?"

"Looking back on it…no. I don't. Even with rescuing Kamui as my motivation, I soon found another: to protect my people—the people my family is sworn to protect. I still do." Hinoka leaned forward against the railing. "But…every now and again, I do wonder: what if I never saw that pegasus flying overhead one day? What if I never tried to sneak out with one, on that snow-filled night? What if Mother had convinced me not to risk my life in battle as a sky knight?"

"Then you would've been just a normal kid—same as any other." I paused. "…Well, if you ignored the Dragon Vein thing."

Chuckling. I guess Hinoka found that amusing. "Oh, that's right…"

"You also wouldn't've met…half of your loyal retainers? And your hair wouldn't be short. Oh—and you wouldn't have punched my brother. That, too."

Immediately, Hinoka started. "Wha—but I apologized to him!" she exclaimed. "Don't tell me you're going to hold that over me!"

This time, I chuckled. "'Course not! I'm just saying that what did happen is all in the past—my whole point."

"—Huh?"

"You now have years of experiences that won't change, just from the path you chose. Regrets notwithstanding, you now know that children don't belong on the battlefield, right?—but you can't change the fact that you did just that."

"…Yeah, I guess you have a point." Hinoka looked at me. "What about you, Dreyza? Do you regret—I, yeah, you said it doesn't matter, but—do you regret that part of your past?"

"Hey—way I see it, people are who they are in spite of their pasts, not because of 'em. I may be a Zero, but I'll disregard dichotomy BS and say I'm not exempt from that statement. Besides…" I shrugged. "Can I really regret the only way my life began?"

"…I suppose that's true."

Another moment of silence. The ocean quivered.

"…Tell you what: on the other side of this war, is a world where there's no need for children to march to their deaths." Turning, I held out my hand to Hinoka. "Think we can all open up the path there?"

Hinoka, the Warrior Princess of Hoshido, looked down at my hand, and a smile of mild determination slowly spread over her face. "Yeah," she said, grasping into a handshake. "I know we can."

"Bluefield never agreed to us getting kidnapped and almost brainwashed. …" - They're not going to explain to them how the…ahem—"R"s were created and raised? —Dr. Valerie Quinton

* This world doesn't have the means to "flash-grow" human Shells, Doc. Besides, it's not important. —Blu

* …Fair enough. —Dr. Quinton

"… Oh—and you wouldn't have punched my brother. That, too." - A story for another time. —Burna

"Can I really regret the only way my life began?" - Well, I sure haven't. —Dreyza

Author's Notes: Okay, ever since the last post, a lot has happened with me in a short span of time. It probably won't seem that way to you, but it's likely because it all happened while I was stuck figuring this drabble out. But the important thing is this: some things about my work and schedule will be changing soon. Here's the list of points:

First: I have discovered Archive of Our Own, and am currently re-posting some of my stuff there, including Project Bluefield. As much as I appreciate this website for connecting me with some wonderful people and ideas, the fact remains that the publishing process for fanfics here is…inefficient and time-costly. Archive, on the other hand, is more streamlined and less frustrating. Now, don't take this to mean "I'm abandoning this site for another one." I will keep posting my works on this site, but Archive will be my primary focus from here on out. But as for things that are on this site…

Second: Now, I neglected to mention this months ago, but I am also editing another fanfic: And So We Fight, a Hyrule Warriors fic by The Fighting Irishman. (P.S.: Bonus points if you can tell me where Blu was reading that very fic.) Why didn't I bring it up before now? Well, aside of not wanting to brag about it, the main reason was that I'd had a fully-edited chapter, ready to send to TFI…before I accidentally deleted it from my iPod, which was the only place it existed on.

Oops, right? Well, that one event pretty much beheaded my willingness to edit it for a while. However, I'm getting back into it now, because I intend to keep my word to TFI—and because I really enjoyed And So We Fight. As a result, however, my already-nonexistent update schedule will be messed up further. So, I'll add "whenever I'm not editing others' works" to the short list of update criteria I have. Eheheh… ;^^ (;_;)

Third: The TV Tropes site has a few new fanfic pages now. Now, yes, I am bringing it up partially because Project Bluefield now has one such page, which is my fault. (Before you ask: yep, And So We Fight also has a page.) However, for those of you who enjoy the juxtaposition of "our world" and "others' worlds"—and probably love lampshade humor and deconstructions—I would like to direct your attention to another recent entry, this one from FF-dot-net as well: Hyperdimension Neptunia is Real! by Some Random Tosser.

Bet you weren't expecting that, huh? Well, I would not blame you. I wouldn't have expected it, either.

But I do think it's a well-earned recommendation. The author basically took a game that he admittedly didn't like, and turned it into something that was surprisingly enjoyable. Hell, it made me smile at the sheer absurdity of Neptune, Jacob and the rest of the gang's shenanigans; but also made me think "oh, crap" when something I didn't expect to happen the way it does…does.

Now, SRT's recently posted a new chapter after a long period of silence, and I'm glad to say—without spoiling anything—it's definitely the level of funny and sadness that I'd expect from him. If you are interested in reading something of a different flavor of "medieval fantasy" or "medieval fantasy plus self-insert deconstructions", go give Hyperdimension Neptunia is Real! a read and leave SRT some reviews!

Well, that's about everything I wanted to talk about before next post. Until then, I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving (or whatever-have-you), and will enjoy the future holidays!

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