Nashi stared at Hisoka, not knowing what to say or think.
"Your niece?" Emma inquired.
Hisoka nodded.
Merlin pushed through the others and went over to Hisoka. "Okay, first of all: what? Second: what the hell?"
"Allow me to rephrase that," said Hisoka. "That dragon egg is Flumentia's granddaughter."
"Wait… how can you tell it's female?" asked Nashi.
"The coloring. Male eggs are mostly white with a few dragon markings, while the white on the female eggs takes on a slight tint of the same hue as the markings."
"Um… it's white."
"It's a very slight tint," Hisoka replied. "It takes incredible color sensitivity to see it."
"Yeah, I can see it," Akane piped in.
Emma stared at the egg intently. "Come to think of it, me too."
"Okay, fine," Nashi conceded. "But also, why didn't you tell us on the way here?"
"I didn't know."
"And you know now?"
Hisoka nodded.
"Hisoka, where exactly did you go when you split off from the rest of us?" William asked.
Hisoka looked around the room at the team. They all looked and sounded curious, and like they weren't going to just leave it. He sighed. "I, um… went to see Soren."
Nashi's reaction was the loudest, while the others just gave him surprised looks. "You what?!"
"Sorry. I know that was stupid, but…"
"Actually, I'm just surprised that you were willing to talk to him," Nashi corrected. "You think you can trust what he says, though?"
"I'd know if I couldn't." Hisoka tapped his ear. "And he knows that. Anyway…" He turned to Anna, who had just been standing and watching. "…we need to discuss the terms of this mission. A lot has changed since we last spoke."
Anna nodded and gestured for Hisoka to sit. "Let's hear it, then."
Everyone gathered together on the two sofas.
"I can't take that egg to my home continent," Hisoka declared. "That place is no longer safe, especially for any of my family."
"What about your sister?" Akane asked. "Torden said he met her just a couple years ago."
"Holding your own and being in a safe place are two different things. And for a dragon egg or a hatchling, that's even worse. Anna-sensei, we need to change the mission objective. The destination, at the very least."
"What, exactly, has changed?"
"Some guy named Unugoladu. Flutlogia apparently knows about him, but won't tell me anything. He's been tearing down Flutlogia's legacy, and that includes killing me, as well as controlling the dragons. This egg is my family. I can't let her get caught up in it."
"I see… well, then…" Anna stood up and knelt next to the egg, checking to make sure it was still the right temperature. "…I think I will change the mission. I will entrust you with the task of finding a safe home for this egg, and I will be raising the reward to three million jewel…" She stood up and grabbed a necklace with a blue lacrima that pulsated with light. "…as well as this."
"Another fallen star," William whispered, remembering the Anima crisis.
"Actually, that's a tidestone," Hisoka corrected. "I'm not sure where you got 'fallen star' from."
"It's the same kind of lacrima we used to deal with the Anima," William explained. "It fell from space."
"Not this one," Hisoka replied. "This one came from my home continent. There's a giant cave system there with millions of these. They're useful for storing spells, souls, spells and souls…" He pulled out his symphonica. "Even this thing's made of tidestone."
"And that one has Flumentia's soul in it," Akane added, pointing at the one Anna was holding.
"What?!" Hisoka stared wide-eyed at Akane, then at the stone, then back at Akane. "How do you know?"
"I'm actually not sure," Akane admitted. "It just looked like her."
"Uh…"
"I guess it's one of my weird cognitive things, like when I didn't recognize Edolas counterparts. I mean, I'm assuming so, considering how confused you're acting."
"Yeah, I would also assume so based on how confused I am," Hisoka agreed.
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Anna.
"Akane sees things weirdly," Hisoka explained. "Use disguise magic that makes it so someone doesn't even vaguely resemble themself, and Akane will recognize them with no awareness of the disguise, but show him a clone of someone, and he'll have no clue who it is."
"I mean, you can tell me about the disguise magic and then I'll be aware of it."
"Fair enough."
"Anyway, yeah. That's Flumentia's soul in that tidestone."
Hisoka stood up and approached Anna. "Not just her soul. I'm sensing some powerful, complex magic, and I recognize it. Don't you?" He turned back to Akane.
"Yeah," Akane realized. "Yeah, I do."
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Nashi.
"The soul fusion ritual," Hisoka replied. "All of the magic from the soul fusion ritual is stacked perfectly within this lacrima." He turned back to Anna. "How did you get this?"
"The same person who had the egg also gave me this," Anna explained. "That is also partially why I requested you for this job, so I could give it to you like he asked me to." She held it out to him. "I said it would be part of the reward for the quest, but it seemed important, and what you just said sounds consistent with that. What is a soul fusion ritual anyway?"
"What Akane and I underwent," Hisoka explained. "We're fourth generation dragonslayers, which means our souls were fused with those of dragons." He took the lacrima.
Nashi stood up and walked over. "Can I see?" She reached out a hand.
Hisoka's eyes went wide and he pulled the crystal back, using his other hand to smack Nashi's away. Then he shook his hand in pain, mentally noting that one should not punch metal.
"What was that for?"
"Don't touch it," Hisoka warned, "unless you want to get yourself killed."
"Why would it kill me?" Nashi asked.
"You are, in effect, a first generation dragonslayer. If you were to touch this, it would automatically trigger, and your element is too different from Flumentia's. You'd never survive having your soul fused with hers." He looked over at Emma and the twins. "That goes for you as well."
"But what if I use this arm, since it's not entirely a part of my body?"
"It's also extremely conductive of ethernanos and is connected to your magical reserves. I'd rather not risk it."
"Alright, that's fair."
"What if I handled it with an iron club?" asked Emma.
"Despite the fact that tidestones are hard enough to survive something like that, that would actually be worse, since it would come into direct contact with your magic."
Emma nodded. "I see. Good to know."
"Anyway…" Hisoka put the tidestone in an inner pocket, then went over to the egg and picked it up. "Nashi, quick. We need you keeping it warm."
"Right." Nashi went over and took the egg.
"Just slightly warmer than it currently feels, since it just had a few seconds to cool down."
"Yeah, I know how to incubate an egg."
Hisoka tilted his head out of curiosity. "Really? When?"
"A few times, actually," Nashi replied. "I accepted a job request from a farm, asking for a fire mage, since they didn't have enough chickens for as many eggs as they had."
"Yeah, I remember that!" agreed Emma. "The chickens laid a ton of eggs, and the farmer decided to sell the extra chicks when they hatched. And you burned his barn down!" She burst out laughing.
"Um… it doesn't sound like you were successful…"
"And then I took a few more requests like that over the years," Nashi retorted, cutting Hisoka off. "I got better at it. In fact, that original farmer decided to teach me how to control my flames more effectively. I actually sort of became a professional human incubator."
"And yet, you're completely out of control when fighting."
"Duh. I'm trying to crush my opponents in those situations. You think I'm trying to crush this egg?" Nashi set the egg back down on the hearth.
"Of course not. It's just that I've never seen you with that kind of control over…" Hisoka stopped suddenly as Nashi placed a hand on his shoulder. Immediately, heat spread evenly throughout his body. He didn't even feel the slightest temperature difference between his skin and his insides. "Oh…" It felt weird, like he was hotter than he should be able to take, but he wasn't sweating, and he didn't feel uncomfortable with the intense heat. It was more of an embracing warmth, the kind of warm that one would use in the phrase "warm smile" or "warm welcoming". It felt – peaceful.
"That's how good I am at this." Nashi's expression was blank, but in a way just as warm as the feeling she was giving Hisoka. She removed her hand and the feeling subsided.
"That was…" Hisoka shook his head, still dazed by the whole experience. "I don't know what to say."
"Yeah, it can have that effect on people, especially if it catches them off guard. My parents are almost constantly snuggling because my dad can do that." She stuck her tongue out in a disgusted manner.
"I can certainly see why," Hisoka replied. "It kind of leaves me wanting more."
"Don't count on it."
"Right. Anyway, I guess we should get going?"
Nashi picked the egg back up and walked out the door. "Yeah, let's go."
The others got up from the two sofas and followed Nashi out the door. Nashi then summoned Lupus and climbed on, being extremely careful with the egg.
"Hey Emma," said Hisoka, "can I trust you not to attack someone who's carrying something like an egg?"
"No, I wasn't going to do that. Why?"
"Well, we kind of had Merlin riding with you and Nashi to stop you from fighting, but I'm thinking maybe I could take him, so he can be with William."
"Uh…" Merlin looked between Hisoka and Emma. "Are you sure they can be trusted?"
"You don't give me enough credit, Merlin," Emma complained. "You really think I would risk the life of a young, defenseless creature?"
"She's being genuine," Hisoka added. "And surprisingly, she doesn't sound careless, like people do when there's still a good chance they'll accidentally break a promise like that. It'll be fine."
Emma climbed up onto Lupus, while Merlin got a secure grip on Hisoka, and the team took off.
"Do you even know where we're taking the egg?" Henri asked.
Hisoka thought about this for a moment. "Not really, no."
"Then where are we going?" Henri asked.
"I'm not sure… I just thought it might come to me."
"You know that rarely works. You definitely shouldn't let something so important depend on it."
"I know." Hisoka looked over at Nashi, who was still calmly embracing the egg, sitting on her own. It was late afternoon, and they had decided to take a break. "I just… really don't know what to do in this situation. The one dragon place I know of is off the list, and we can't just have a baby dragon in the guild. A fully grown dragon who knows his manners is one thing, but even with a dragon as a parental figure, a baby dragon in training can be really destructive. As crazy as it may sound to you, a baby dragon can be more destructive than Emma and Nashi."
"I heard that!" Nashi called.
"Well, how long until the egg hatches?" asked Henri, ignoring Nashi's retort.
"About a week, based on the way it sounds."
"You can determine that based on sound?"
"What, you think brainwaves are louder than a developing embryo? There's the heartbeat, for one thing."
"That is a fair point."
"Anyway, why do you ask?"
"We have a week to figure out what to do," Henri replied. "I say we take it back to the guild for now."
"I guess that would make sense. It's too dangerous to travel with it when we don't know where we're going."
"Yeah. I can't egg-sit forever," Nashi agreed.
Hisoka stood up and walked over to Nashi. "That is another fair point." He knelt and placed a hand on the egg. Like she had done with him back at Anna's house, she was keeping the egg warm, but not too warm. He smiled. "Time limits aside, though, you're really good at this. Thank you."
"Least I could do," Nashi returned.
Hisoka glanced around the clearing and saw Merlin, Emma, Akane and Thomas having some conversation about sandwiches. He glanced around some more and saw William lying on the ground some distance away. He jogged over to see that she was staring absentmindedly at the sky, and he could hear something like stressed contemplation. He sat down next to her. "You alright?"
William jolted in response to the sudden presence and looked over at Hisoka, then back at the sky. "Yeah, I guess."
"How many times do I need to tell you…?"
"Yeah, I know," William interrupted. "You can tell I'm lying." She sighed and sat up, getting out her rune pen.
"What are you…?"
"Just some precautions." William began writing in a ring around them. "Before I tell you anything, I want to make sure nobody else can hear us." She finished writing and sat cross-legged, facing Hisoka.
"It's about Akane, isn't it?"
William rolled her eyes. "What gave it away?" She looked down at the ground. "Basically, I'm a complete idiot."
"What happened?"
William sighed again. "I told him."
Hisoka's eyes widened with surprise. "Then why are you…?"
"Or at least I tried to." William cut him off. "We were sitting outside, alone. He has feelings for me. I could see it in his eyes. So I tried telling him, but what came out was the exact opposite. I have no idea what I was thinking!"
"It sounds like you panicked," Hisoka suggested. "It happens. It can occur in the most irrational moments. You consciously were convinced he would share your feelings, but deep down, you're still afraid."
"But I had every reason to be able to confidently tell him!" William protested. "I had no doubts!"
"You're lying."
William gritted her teeth in frustration. "But I shouldn't have!"
Hisoka placed a hand on William's shoulder, causing her breathing and heart to grow a bit calmer.
"Now… I've ruined it…" A teardrop fell into her lap.
"No, you haven't," Hisoka reassured. "Yeah, you've put yourself in an unfortunate situation. So did I when I decided to be in that contest at the Games, and when I jumped in front of Akane's blade." He opened his overcoat and lifted up his undershirt, showing William his new scar. "So did Nashi when she decided to go after her parents." He closed his overcoat back up, then pointed a finger at William. "And so did you when you fought the frost dragon. Did any of us let any of those drag us down?"
"No…"
"So why should this be any different? If you think about it, dealing with your love life isn't that much harder than dealing with any other part of your life. Why should you let this drag you down when nothing else ever did?"
"I don't know…"
Hisoka nodded. "It's that same uncertainty that made you panic. Look, you can do this. I believe in you. so why don't you believe in yourself?"
"Well, I still really need some alone time, no matter what you say."
Hisoka sighed and stood up. "Right. Well, please don't beat yourself up like that. I can't stand to see my friends like that." He began to walk back over to the others, then stopped suddenly as he heard footsteps – those of people who were trying to sneak up on someone. He whipped around in time to see a magic bullet fly towards William, and dove towards her, knocking her out of the way and yelping in pain as the bullet hit him in the ankle.
"Ow…"
"Sorry, I had to." Hisoka scrambled to his feet to see a few people dressed in heavily obscuring clothing run towards the main camp. "Oh, no you don't! Kawatatsu no Juatsukiri!" He sent a drill of pressurized water at one of the bandits, striking them in the small of the back and sending them flying past Nashi. He then limped over next to Nashi, determined to protect the egg.
"Hisoka, I can't fight and keep the egg's temperature at the same time."
"Yeah, I figured. That probably requires a lot of concentration." He stared angrily between the bandits. There were around a dozen of them aside from the one he had just stunned, all holding magical rifles.
"Hand over the egg," one of the bandits demanded – a male voice. "You're outnumbered, and that egg'll fetch a hefty price."
"Shinkuryuu no Houkou!" A cone of crimson energy engulfed three of the bandits.
"Tetsuryuukon!" Four iron poles took out another four bandits, knocking them to the ground.
"Really, now?" Emma inquired. "It doesn't look like that to me. You're lucky Merlin and I didn't break their spines."
The remaining five bandits stared wide-eyed at their incapacitated companions.
Hisoka stepped in front of Nashi. "That egg is my niece, and you are not touching it." A look of murder crossed his face.
The bandits looked confused, then looked around at their situation. They then picked up their fallen companions, with a couple of beefy ones picking up two each, and they fled past William, deciding to ignore her for fear of provoking the others.
Hisoka turned to Nashi. "You didn't let that egg overheat or get too cold, did you?"
Nashi shook her head. "No, but it was really hard."
"Yeah. Sorry you couldn't fight there. I know it wasn't what you hoped for."
"It's fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. It's really nice taking care of something."
Hisoka glanced across the campfire at Nashi. The others had already gone to sleep, save for Henri, who was flying around their campsite as first watch. "You okay?"
"This is really stressing me out," Nashi complained. "I don't think I can hold this much longer. That fight really shook me."
Suddenly, Hisoka had an idea and walked over to sit next to Nashi. "Maybe I can help." He placed a hand on her left arm, momentarily tracing the tattoos. Immediately, he felt the warmth Nashi was putting into the egg, and could sense her tenseness letting up.
"Yeah, I think that's helping."
Hisoka smiled and began to remove his hand, which was immediately grabbed by Nashi.
"Stay," Nashi asserted. "I can't stay up all night like this. I think this could help me do it in my sleep."
"Alright." Hisoka placed his hand back on the egg, then brought his other hand around to hold Nashi's right hand. The metal, like the flesh, felt comfortably warm. "This really is a soothing feeling."
"I'd say the same to you."
Hisoka nodded in agreement as his consciousness slipped into the calm senselessness of dreams.
Henri looked over at the two sleeping dragonslayers, smiling at the peaceful look on their faces. She pulled a camping blanket out of her requip inventory and threw it over them. "Goodnight. We've got a lot of work tomorrow."
So, yeah. Hisoka is a dragon's uncle. What are the odds? Also, I haven't really commented on the character development lately, or the relationship dynamics between them. The reason for this is that I'd rather you enjoy or not enjoy that bit on your own (although, if you've read this far, you're most likely enjoying it). Hope you enjoyed!
