10th Squad 3rd Seat: Putting my story in the community thingie wazit? I don't mind really, go ahead.

It's been almost a month since my last update, and the one year anniversary of this story is coming soon. November 19.

Universe One

Sick Day

"Someone crashed through the door and I jolted awake, rolling off the other side of the bed before cautiously peeking over with a hand on the hilt of my sword. I suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and I sat back down on the floor, a hand to my head. Kid stomped around the bed and towered over me with a glare.

"Go away Kid." I said lowly as I used the bed to help myself to my feet. I didn't feel right. I felt tired and cold again as I flopped onto the bed.

"Get rid of this fucking hangover." The redhead growled at me.

"I can't do that, go drink water or something but leave me alone!" I said louder just as Nii-Killer walked in. Kid was really annoyed and he just left the room with a string of curses as the masked blond came over to the bed.

"Aeona?" He asked as he stood nearby. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I told him, getting up and grabbing my parka. "I'm just half asleep at the moment."

"The dizziness was still there, but not as bad and I was feeling a little better anyways. We both silently made our way down to the ground floor and out of the damaged building. Nii-Killer leading the way to a bar that the crew had overrun. It was freezing even with my parka on and I had the hood low over my head.

At some point I was lying flat on the snowy ground and Nii-Killer was crouching beside me, a hand to my forehead. Then I was on his back as he ran, my arms wrapped around in front of his neck. My eyes were closed and my breathing heavy as I heard a crash and voices that I couldn't make sense of.

After a while, my eyes opened again and I found myself on the floor next to a fireplace in a long room, the bar. I had a damp towel across my forehead and I was drowned in layers of blankets on top and under me. Nii-Killer was sitting nearby and drinking a glass of water from a straw stuck through a hole in his mask.

I shifted my position and went on my side, curling up slightly while Killer turned his head to glance my way. The towel slid off my forehead as I looked at him. "What happened?"

"You have a fever." He replied easily, putting his cup down.

"Can I blame Kid for throwing me in the snow?" I asked and he tilted his head slightly before nodding. I sighed and closed my eyes, tucking an arm under my head. "How long was I out?"

"Not long." Was Nii-Killer's reply. "About twenty minutes."

"Why am I always somehow unconscious when I'm with this crew?" I wondered aloud before I heard the stomping footsteps, feeling the vibration from the floor.

"A fucking fever isn't gonna kill you." Kid growled as he stood over me. My eyebrows furrowed in a frown and I ducked my head completely under the blankets. They were suddenly ripped away and I gasped at the rush of colder air as I sat up, glaring at Kid. He tossed the blankets back over his shoulderas he returned the glare, his eyes narrow.

"What the hell is your problem?" I asked and he just smirked.

"Kid Pirates don't get sick." He stated and I rolled my eyes.

"But I'm not really a Kid Pirate am I? I'm just sticking around until I have to go to the next universe." I huffed, putting my chin in my hand as he scowled at me.

"Keep telling yourself that." The redhead muttered before he turned to leave. "Kid Pirates are the only ones who sail on my ship and stay alive."

I narrowed my eyes at the threat and watched his back as he walked away. Then I tried to get the blankets using purple fire, but I quickly found out that I had no energy to do it. And I couldn't heal myself of the fever either. I didn't know how to heal it anyways. The big thing about healing with blue fire is that I had to know how the body works to heal it and accelerate the process. With cuts I just close the hole and regenerate cells to hold it together until it's back to the way it's supposed to be.

Crawling to the blankets and getting them myself, I hurried back by the fireplace and wrapped myself up again. Nii-Killer just watched me, having stayed silent through my ordeal with Kid. I thought for a moment before glancing his way. "Can we train together sometime?"

"... Why?" He asked and I shrugged, facing the fire again.

"I wanna get stronger. So far I've been fighting out of my head with what Blaine taught me, but my body isn't used to it." I thought about what Visor Mathen told me in the short time we had met. So far I'd been lucky I only fought a couple of shadow specters on their own, but I remembered the images of them coming in droves like a black stampede of twisted creatures. I'm nowhere near ready to face that, and I didn't want to. "I don't want to just know how to fight, I need to become a fighter."

I looked at him again. "Can you train me?"

He was silent for a long moment and I could feel him thinking. "... Once you're better, we can start."

A smile spread on my face and I nodded, content with the answer as I closed my eyes again.

I spent half the day bored out of my mind, not allowed outside because Killer said the fever would get worse. So I mostly sat around by the fire reading the newspaper and drawing as I waited for the fever to settle. It was really irritating.

At some point I was alone and everybody was out, even Nii-Killer who was called by Kid to do something or other. I was pretty annoyed at that point and got up, grabbing my parka so I could go for a walk. My fever had already settled down quite a bit and I just needed to move around, grabbing my katana before walking out the door. The blast of cold air hit me hard and I wrapped the scarf closer around my face and neck, shoving my hands in my pockets right after.

"Why the hell did we have to come here?" I muttered as I walked around, my brown eyes roaming the nearly empty streets of the winter island town. The people here didn't seem as bothered about the cold as I was, the lucky bastards... This island didn't have the mountains like the other ones I read in the manga, this was a tundra where nothing blocked the constantly blasting winds and swirls of snow. I wondered what a good day here would look like.

Another blast of wind rolled down the street, sending icy needles of snow into my face as I took a step back. I changed my direction so it was hitting my shoulder as I walked, I should've stayed by the fire.

Walking past a small alleyway, another blast of wind was funnelled through, along with the sounds of sobbing. My attention was drawn to the crying and I began walking through between the small buildings, covering my face whenever more wind went through. The crying was louder and I saw a small figure crouched on the ground, digging in the snow by the wall. I hurried over and dropped down beside them, seeing a young boy wearing thin clothes, a bunch of food tucked under one arm as he dug with the other. His fingers were blue and he was visibly shivering as he continued digging. I don't know what for, but he would cry louder when the wind blew more snow to undo all the work he did digging.

"Hey!" I called out and put a hand on his shoulder, making him whip his head up. He didn't look like one of the villagers and his clothes weren't made of sealskin or whatever it was they used. More wind blew snow in my face and I rubbed my eyes, the icy crystals stinging. I opened them again just in time to see the boy running around the corner, his boots kicking up snow. I scrambled to my feet and started after him. "Wait!"

Following as fast as I could, I caught up and basically yanked on the back of his shirt, causing him to yelp and drop a couple of food pieces as he kicked at me. I was unbalanced and ended up on my knees. "Hold on! You're freezing!"

He kept wordlessly kicking until I opened up my parka and pulled him in with me, wrapping him up with his back to my front. The boy kept fighting me until he eventually settled down, pressing as close as he could so he could warm up in the parka. I could feel how cold he was and I stayed sitting on the ground for a bit, warming him up as the wind kept blowing over us. After a bit, I reached out to pick up the dropped food before standing, carrying him in the parka. He was such a small kid.

"Let's go someplace warmer." I told him as I started walking, keeping my parka close around us as the wind hit my back. I didn't recognize where we were and the wind had changed direction, which didn't help. The boy had stayed completely silent as I went to a nearby house and knocked on the door.

A man opened the door and looked at me, taking in the fact that I was carrying a boy with sandy-coloured hair in my parka. The man narrowed his eyes at me and started closing the door before I could say anything. "We do not help pirates."

"But-" The door closed and I frowned at it for a while. How could they have known I was a pirate? I moved on to the next few houses and got similar results each time. After the seventh one, I got fed up and just walked, the motions keeping me somewhat warm as I heard the boy begin crying.

"Hey..." I rested my hand on his head gently. "Don't worry about it, they just don't like me."

He shook his head and sniffled before speaking. "They don't like me. They don't like me 'cause my dad's a pirate."

I went silent at that, thinking about how I found him, thin clothes, holding food, digging in the snow against that house. Was he homeless? The townspeople wouldn't let him into their homes anyhow. There was a dark presence in another part of the town and I released a groan. This was really bad timing.

Changing my direction, I quickened my walking pace somewhat while the boy looked up at me in confusion, holding onto me so he wouldn't fall out of the parka as I hurried. Turning around the corner, I could see the prints of a large animal in the snow, telling me it was one of those bigger shadow specters. I'm just going to call them brutes.

I quickly put the boy down and took off my parka, setting it around his small shoulders as my breath quickened with the cold. "Stay here."

The brute was moving away and I drew my sword before rushing at the invisible creature. Green fire coated my black blade as I sliced at it, wanting to finish quickly so I could wear the parka again. At least the boy was staying out of the way. The emerald flames burned away the illusion to reveal a huge, dark purple tiger with jet black stripes. It snarled at me and turned around, taking up my challenge as I held my katana tightly with both hands. The tiger roared and leaped at me before I dashed to the side, swinging my sword up to it's neck. It only went in part of the way and I scowled as it slipped out with a sickening slurp, black blood oozing from the wound to melt the snow as the tiger turned back around.

We circled each other for a bit before I made a move, feigning right before spinning the other way, trying for it's neck again as it fell for the trick. This attack had a bit more success, but it still wasn't enough as it pulled itself off my sword. I moved back but the wind pushed me over the rest of the way, making me land in the snow. The tiger took the chance to pounce and the snow was too high for me to roll over. I stuck my sword up, making it run itself through on the blade. It's weight was too much for my arms and the hilt slammed into my shoulder, making me cry out in pain at the crushing pressure.

The Shadow Specter was still alive and I was trapped beneath it as it snarled and clawed at me, preventing me from getting out. It's blood was dripping onto me from it's rapidly healing neck wounds and I was screaming from all the pain as I tried to protect my face with one arm, snow swirling all over the place. At some point, it swiped at my head and I was knocked unconscious.

Killer's POV

I heard Aeona scream not far from where Kid and I was and took off, ignoring him when he shouted at me. A roar could be heard and I wondered if it was one of those things she was supposed to kill. I couldn't sense it.

Getting my blades out and spinning them, I banked around the corner and immediately set my sights on the huge tiger bearing down on my sister. I dashed at it and sliced my spinning blade through it's neck, kicking it so it wouldn't fall down on top of her.

"Aeona!" I called out and saw the black blood eating away at her flesh. It was doing the same to my weapons and I dropped them before trying to clean her up with the snow, she was freezing, where's her jacket?

Something whizzed past my head and I looked up to see the floating flower, it's base black while the edges of the petals were white. It looked like the same flower that Aeona had brought onto the ship, but it had black colour as well, it wasn't purely white anymore. The peony suddenly turned blue and Aeona became engulfed in azure flames, the acidic blood sliding off as her wounds healed. The tiger's corpse then floated up and the flower became completely black, sprouting the dark fire to burn the creature.

I turned my attention to the unconscious girl and put her katana in it's sheath before picking her up. The flower moved in front of me before I could walk and I watched warily as it floated closer to Aeona. It seemed to consume itself and reform into a necklace, the chain going around her neck as the pendant rested against her chest. It seemed to be made of glass, the image of the black flower on it.

A little boy came up to me slowly, wearing Aeona's jacket. He didn't look like one of the villagers and I watched as he took hold of Aeona's hand carefully. I watched him for a bit before starting to walk, making her hand slip out of his as I moved away. His eyes followed me for a second before he hurried to follow, trying to keep up with my long strides as I made my way back to the bar. She was still freezing cold. Her fever probably got worse... What an idiot.

You know, the more I read the manga, the more I love Corazon as a character. He's just so dorky and cute.

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Thanks from Qudirl Rider Aeona!