Ghost's Fury Chapter 27: Fishing for Plans, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 27, everybody! In which Obake conducts some experiments…that weren't written in the order they appear in the chapter so if they seem kind of choppy, that's why. ^^;

Also in this chapter is where we start getting another side plot going….

'Kamikaze' means 'divine wind,' and if you stayed awake in History class you know it was the name of the Japanese suicide airplanes in WWII. Since airplanes are not a thing in this story, though…let's just say the Celts aren't the only ones who run shrieking at their foes. D:

Also, the scientist line is an old joke I've seen online, and makes sense because part of the scientific discovery is seeing if the same outcome comes from conducting the same experiment over and over. The bit about the centipede in the ear comes from the book Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson—apparently in that book centipedes will crawl into a dragon's ear to eat their brains. D:

The incident with the eel was enough to make Obake run a series of tests afterwards. Yes, parts of eel worked, as did the eel pattern.

Now that latter bit was something he regretted not knowing back in the day—no one could have possibly come up with anything foul to make of a simple repeating pattern that got fished up on a routine basis. Give that one some thought….

The ghost did some sort of frightful marks to scare the beasts off!

Yeah that was probably how it would have gone.

But it did give him something to fiddle with, though.

Hence why he snuck back to the village once he heard everyone in the kill ring, liberated paint and fabric, made several long strips done up in the eel pattern. Now, where to put these….

He had to wait until the next round in the kill ring to act on his new ploy, which had given him ample time to figure out the where and why and how. Hiro was no help, Hiro refused to have anything to do with this, which meant he had to liberate a ladder to place straps of fabric on the roofs of several houses.

He had debated, decided against putting them on his own house or the forge—Hiro's volatile reaction made him think that he'd end up with destroyed buildings over anything else. If he was wrong, the buildings would be fine.

If he was right, then he'd get to cackle as the dragons destroyed several of the pink-haired idiot's preferred locales.

It was something that took several days—maneuvering the ladder wasn't exactly a quick job—but by the time the next dragon raid was due, he had enough to make a difference, he thought.

"If this works, I am going to be very cross with you," he told Hiro, to the Night Fury's confusion. "Yes, I'm aware that being mad at you makes no sense—it'll just be very frustrating to learn that all it took to keep you lot away all these years was a few coats of paint."

Hiro shuffled on his haunches, apparently bemused at his opinion—

Perked up at the first angry bellows.

Obake hooked a hand in the harness, ready to grab him and retreat back into the cave—yes, there was a chance this was the other flight, the one that didn't have the big angry Night Fury bent on killing him in it.

But if there was even a slight chance of that, he was taking off.

To his amusement, though, the dragons' war bellows shifted to terrified shrieks as they spotted the eel banners, swerved away, several of them just taking off. Well, this was working out nicely—

And then a Nightmare dove, screaming the draconian equivalent of a kamikaze dying shriek—flamed one of the eel banners and most of the roof it was on for good measure.

"Ah," he noised, vaguely disappointed as the Nightmare gained altitude, other smaller dragons mobbing it and apparently very impressed. "Well, I had a feeling that would happen. Glad I didn't do my place," he told Hiro, trying to keep his amusement tamped down.

Hiro gave him a look he couldn't quite decipher, but which he felt probably meant you're being weird again, stop it. Fair enough.

After the first Nightmare managed part of a second one, another brazen one dove, flaming another eel banner with a bit more nerve. The other dragons were still keeping their distance, but it wouldn't be long before their reason for doing so was gone.

Obake sighed, hauled Hiro back into the cave and into their far cavern before the crossbolts started flying.

"Well that went about how I expected it to," he said, causing Hiro to make a confused noise. "I make a plan to keep dragons away from the village, plan fails miserably, wash, rinse, repeat. On the positive side, that pink-haired idiot is the one paying for it this round." He wondered how he could let Calhoun in on the fact that he had actually done what she wanted and set that nut on fire.

"Wrr," Hiro sighed, following him into the cave.

"What?" he asked, lighting the fire pit. "It's not my fault those dragons didn't take a perfectly good hint and shove off. Matter of fact, we've still not addressed the fact that those dragons have no reason to attack here. The only people who persist in such activity that has proven disastrous are idiots and scientists." And depending on who you asked, there wasn't much distinction between the two.

Hiro huffed, glared away at nothing.

"Why do the dragons keep coming back?" he asked evenly. "We've made it perfectly clear this island is unwelcome—so why."

Hiro huffed again, shook his head, considered him before padding to the sand and scratching out something in it. Not runes, it was too big. Finish up with a small dot, point at the dot before patting himself.

"I hope that's not to scale, firstly," Obake said drily. "Secondly…what is this?" Point at the larger thing, which almost looked like something with a huge gaping mouth resplendent with teeth and tusks.

"Hrrf," Hiro noised, somewhere between a huff and a growl as he glared in the direction of the cave entrance. Seemed torn on how to describe it, finally settled on stomping on it with vigor, splashing sand everywhere.

"I take it whatever it is, it's not something you care for," he observed. Consider it, sketch it in his notebook…whatever it was, it was something dragons considered detestable, something that possibly hunted dragons….

But what could possibly be big and dangerous enough to threaten a dragon? Humans got lucky, had to be clever and hit where it hurt…what else was there that could threaten something with so many natural defenses?

And was it something that could be harnessed?

Boulders-on-Hill finally found the Nadder on a little island after several nights of hunting.

"There you are!" she hollered, diving down. "I've been looking all over for you!"

The Nadder flashed his spines, not quite calming himself down from his defensive stance. "You were?"

"Yeah," she said, shaking herself a little upon landing. "I was hoping to catch you before you got back to the queen."

He blinked, cocked his head to better look at her. "You…you're from my flight?"

"I used to be!" she declared proudly, puffing up a little. "But I got some freedom knocked into me! Much better life without a queen bellowing in your head all day!"

He flattened his spines, like that concept terrified him. "I don't know…."

"Trust me, it's a lot better. Look, flesh on me now—Gronkles are NOT supposed to have ribs showing, ever."

"W-well…."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You think it too," she accused. "If you didn't you would already be back there. So why aren't you?"

He scratched at the ground. "I…was hunting," he said finally. "So she wouldn't eat me when I came back."

"Liar—there's plenty of fish in the sea."

"Nngh—I DON'T WANT TO, OKAY!?" he snapped finally. "I don't want to go back to the queen—is that so wrong?"

"No," she said simply. "I mean, I sure haven't."

He looked at her, looked away. "But I can't be out here by myself—it's not good for a dragon to be alone, anything could happen."

"Well good news, you can come with me! That way you won't be alone."

Okay, that look was a little insulting. "Uh, no offense, but I'm a Nadder, you're a Gronkle…."

"We're from the same flight, I could knock you down with ease right now," she continued, giving him a deadpan look. "Listen—humor me—staying around here is weirdly safer than going back to the nest."

Now it was his turn for the deadpan look. "Uh, I just escaped from the deadly Yokai-nest—where have you been?"

"The deadly Yokai-nest," she replied simply. "Turns out they never check the caves in their mountain."

Okay, that expression was worth it. "Are you NUTS!? You're actually living on the same island as them did a centipede get in your ear and eat your brain WHY!?"

"Firstly, the queen can't get me here," she said. "Secondly, I'm part of a very important experiment that'll change the world." It was a nicely impressive declaration, and it really shouldn't have gotten a snort in response. "I'm working with a Night Fury, Hiro—he's actually tamed a Yokai."

Mirth was replaced with shock. "What—how—why—"

"I don't know," she told him. "But…whatever he's done, it works—the Yokai's tame. And…." Had to pace now, this was the part that was still snarly in her head and made her nervous whenever she tried to approach that tangle. "It's—it's weird, okay? It's like—they're intelligent, like us. They think and plan and they share fish with tame fire and—" Stop, staring at her paws. "I don't know—I feel like I'm describing it wrong, but…." Look back at him. "Maybe it's just this one, but…I almost feel like we're wrong about them." Look away, to the north, where she knew her old queen still hungered, always hungered. "Maybe they're bossed around by a bad alpha, same as us. Maybe this one is just special. I don't know. I feel like I should know—I feel like—like the water's all muddy, and there's fish-shapes in there, but I can't see them well enough to try for them. But I feel like I should try." She looked back at him. "This Yokai saved other dragons, let a bunch of Terrors and a Gronkle out, helped you escape—I feel like there's something there."

The Nadder shifted his weight uneasily, ruffling his wings and spines…finally shook his head.

"You want me to go back with you, don't you?" he asked. "But I can't—I can't go back there. I'm flying and I'm not coming back."

"At least don't go back to the queen," she told him, prompting a snort.

"No danger of that," he said, turning into the breeze and lifting up—glanced at her. "Good luck with your crazy plans—you're totally going to need it."

"If you change your mind, you know where I'll be!" she hollered after him. "There's a cave entrance on the north face of the island! It'll smell like me!"

Gone.

Sigh. "I'm sorry, Hiro—I tried." Sit down, paw at the moss clinging stubbornly to the sea stack she was on. "Can't say this surprised me, though." Look up at the sky, at the stars spangling it thickly, each one a dragon that had gone on before. Maybe it was just her, but it always seemed thicker above places where many dragons had died.

"I could use some help," she said, ears flicking back and forth as she scanned the stars. "I…this feels like the right thing to do—if we can end the war between dragons and Yokai…but what if doing so kills them all? What if we're wrong? What if…." So many questions. "It feels like something I should get behind, but…I don't know. Doing the right thing shouldn't be this hard."

Lower her head, stare at the horizon, strangely dark in the light of the waning moon. Obeying her old queen had been easy, despite the danger. Just mindlessly obey, raid, feed, tremble in fear. Now, she was free, with all the dangers that opened up for her…and now with a strange dilemma before her. Deep breath—

Stand, launch herself into the air, angle back to the Yokai-nest. It'd take a day or so, but she'd get there.

Helping to change the world was hard, but it was something she felt she needed to do.

Hiro had been down ever since the Gronkle left.

Obake had noticed, Obake had done his level best to keep Hiro focused on something else so he wouldn't snap at him or try to run off like he had the last time a bunch of dragons had left. Work on a few more runes, mince around the island for supplies, check his wing routinely to make sure it was healing straight. He thought he might be succeeding, mostly, except he'd still catch Hiro scanning the skies and sighing.

"Broken bones take time to heal," Obake said on the fourth day the Gronkle had been gone. "You need to be patient."

Hiro gave him a narrow-eyed look, went to the sand, and wrote the rune for no.

"In retrospect, I regret teaching you that word," he said. The idea had been that teaching him clarifying words and words he could answer questions with would help bridge the gap. Yes and no had been redundant, since he understood nodding and the like, but Hiro seemed to enjoy the extra stimulation.

Of course, Hiro also seemed to like to use those to be petty, like now.

"Getting aggravated won't make this go any faster," he said, trying to keep his own testiness out of his voice. There was still the issue of getting the trapped dragons free, which seemed important to Hiro…except he had no plan that wouldn't be a repeat of the Nadder or wouldn't end up with him being dead.

And he knew that with each passing day, he was losing the Night Fury bit by bit.

Swallow an aggravated growl, went over what he knew from observing two (maybe three or four counting the Nadder and the Terrors as a collective whole) dragons. If you didn't attack them (and had a Night Fury) they'd back down. If you hit them in a certain spot, they'd be knocked out. They ate fish (never eel), had no reason to attack the village.

So why did they?

He kept circling around to that question, hated to because he still didn't have anything approaching an answer. Maybe a mob mentality? When they were in greater numbers they were dangerous, but when in singular encounters…except no. The Terrors were objectively the most dangerous in numbers, and yet that little gaggle of them had been…perfectly reasonable….

"What am I missing?" he asked Hiro. "I'm missing something as to your change in behavior and I don't know what it could be."

Hiro blinked at him, ear flaps flicking like he wasn't sure how to address that—squiggled out a scribble in the sand that was somewhere in the neighborhood of what or how. Question words were still a bit of a gray area as far as getting the comprehension across.

"Dragons have attacked this island for as long as I can remember," he said, gesturing a little to indicate their surroundings. "And yet here you are, and there that Gronkle was, and those Terrors, and that wasn't their angle. What is it that I'm missing?"

Hiro looked pensive, tapped his paw against his mouth in what a startled Obake realized was an imitation of his own behavior—

Stopped, head jerking up and ear flaps fanning, looking at the tunnel entrance—yipped—

A chuff answered him.

"Ah," Obake noised, surprised as he registered the Gronkle padding in. "Look who's back."

Hiro bounded over to the Gronkle, yipping excitedly.

"Well, glad you could join us," Obake observed drily, watching the Gronkle roll around and let Hiro bounce off of it. "Enjoy your little trip?"

The Gronkle rolled upright—noticed the differences in the cave.

"Yes, well, while you were gone we've been renovating," he said, gesturing a little. Right now it was limited to half-shelves made behind and using stalagmites, but he felt that was progress. Crouch down near the Gronkle, considering it. "But where have you been? And why come back?"

The Gronkle huffed at him, rolled to its side and looked like it was winding up for a long nap. A little offensive, since it basically said it didn't view him as a threat—

Was that a bad thing? This dragon he barely interacted with, that he hadn't done extensive training with as he had done with Hiro, was more than willing to treat him with trust thanks to him not trying to kill it.

"Why?" he demanded abruptly. "Why would you go from attacking us to just—this." Gesture to all of it. "What is this logic? Is there logic behind it?" No there wasn't, because under Granville's reign they had never tried to fight back against the dragons—they had even tried leaving food out specifically for the beasts and that had never worked either. So what changed?

Again, he suspected Hiro—somehow, he felt, Night Furies were the missing link in this puzzle.

So, the sensible thing was to keep working with the key.

"Come on you, let sleeping Gronkles lie," he said, snapping his fingers above Hiro's head. "We have work to do."

Hiro waited until Boulders-on-Hill had woken back up and gotten some fish for dinner before asking about the Goregutter in the cave.

Or rather, the Nadder not in the cave.

"So how'd it go?" he asked her. "Did you catch up to it?"

"I did," she said, pawing a fish back and forth listlessly. "And…I told him about what it was you were doing."

Okay, this could be good…."How'd he take it?"

"Not well," she admitted. "He said the idea was crazy."

"That's how you know it's a good idea."

"And…" Plant her paws down firmly, sighing before looking at him. "I don't know about this. I need it explained to me better, outlined better, so I can explain it to other dragons." Look him up and down. "Except I don't think you know about this either, do you? You're winging it just as much as I am right now."

"I mean, technically," he started—stopped, sighed. "Yes. I'm—it's new ground, okay? I don't exactly know what I'm doing, I'm just—" Look at Obake. "He doesn't want to fight dragons. I'm not complaining, but I want to know why. Learning from him is the surest way to accomplish that."

She nodded, eyes distant. "You…did you manage to save any more dragons?"

He shook his head. "One Zippleback, but that's it. We've spent the whole time you were gone brainstorming how to get them out," he said. "The thing is, whatever we try only works once—we can't…." Groan angrily. "I want to just go down there, storm it, let all the dragons free and bonk the Yokai in the head for doing this but I can't. We're one dragon and one Yokai and there's only so much we can do."

She watched him, sitting there and huffing like he was a baby hatchling having a temper tantrum he was NOT it was just that the world was SO unfair—

"Well," she said finally. "Now we're two dragons and a Yokai. Think that'd make a difference?"

He looked at her, feeling his breathing start to even. "Maybe." Lay down, pillow his head on his forelimbs. "I just wish this were easier."

"I wished that while I was out flying," she told him, easing down herself. "And you know what? I came to the conclusion that doing the right thing is hard, but it's worth doing."

He nodded, looked at Obake puzzling over his dry leaves again. Whatever this was…whatever this was, it was worth seeing through until the end. They could do this.

Maybe.

That night the great hall was crowded like it usually was in the nights following a dragon raid, people preferring to stick together instead of risking being caught on their own. It was ridiculous, really, the days following a dragon raid were usually quiet, but whatever, people usually didn't make sense.

That was Momakase's opinion anyway, spooning some soup into a bowl and turning over Obake's new behavior. He was acting strangely, and that wasn't something you wanted out of what was supposed to be an ally—at the very least, it meant another public beheading and one less warm body between her and a charging dragon. Stalk through the room, stop when Audrey waved at her, figured the empty spot next to her was as good as any.

"Glad you could join us," Helga said drily, gesturing a little with her spoon.

"Not for lack of other seats," Momakase muttered, risking a brief moment of silence with a hand gently resting over her bowl. It was thin, but she wasn't sharing.

"Mm-hmm. I understand you bumped off Toomes for that bird soup?"

"That's old news," Momakase said, stirring her soup…broth, more likely, flavored with the barest of herbs and vegetables and the ever-present fish. Oi, she hoped the raiders came back soon. "Give me something new to chew on."

"Has anyone noticed that Obake's acting weird?" Audrey asked. "Well, weird-er?"

"We've all noticed that," Helga told the younger Yokai. "That's just not unusual enough to make news."

Momakase nodded in agreement, despite noticing the same thing. "Come up with something else."

"Me, I'd just like to figure out how to get some Zippleback gas," Vinnie said, gesturing with a spoon. "Explosive gas that goes boom? Already got plans for little bombs with that."

"Surprised you didn't ask Obake to rig something up for you."

Audrey snorted, went back to her soup. "Good luck with that—he's never around anymore. I'm surprised he even showed up last time."

Momakase twirled her knife, considering. "Fair's fair, I'd be making myself scarce if Yama and Sparkle wanted me dead."

"But something I'm questioning," Helga said, tapping her own penknife against the table as she pondered. "All these dragons in the fresh raids, the ones in the kill ring—you don't just get that good. It's like he's manipulating them somehow."

"Zere was always zat one rumor," Mole put in.

"Go away, Mole."

"What rumor?" Audrey asked, looking at Vinnie.

Vinnie made a noise at being caught mid-sip—swallowed first and wiped his mouth. "Eh, the face thing—first rumor I hear after being pressganged into service is he's really some sort of actual ghost."

"He's real enough," Momakase pointed out. "Bony, but real."

Helga nodded, gesturing at Momakase but looking at Audrey and Vinnie. "Revenants are superstition," she told them. "By that definition, the whole of the Yokai are. No, my thought is he's come up with some sort of new plan." Eyebrows furrowed as a fresh thought occurred to her. "Like planning to overthrow Callaghan somehow."

"Helga that's crazy," Audrey countered.

Helga scootched closer over the table, the rest of them imitating, not wanting to be overheard. "Is it? Think about it—he was with the Yokai when they first started; I heard Callaghan handpicked him himself, gave him his mask almost right away. Now Yama might be his second-in-command, but as far as tactics and numbers are concerned that's Obake. Callaghan is the only one on this island he hasn't bested in some way.

"And then this," she persisted. "Snubbing the meeting, missing a raid, never showing his face except when he can help it, hiding from Yama—he's planning something big."

"Dibs said he shot down a Night Fury," Mole said.

"Dibs says a lot of things," Momakase put in, eyeing Helga cautiously. "You know you'd get killed for that if anyone else overheard you."

"But am I wrong?" she asked her, eyebrow arched. "Comparing what we know to what we've seen, do you have a better alternative?"

She considered. Obake was always standoffish and cold, calculating and cunning, murderous to a fault. If he thought he could get away with killing Callaghan….

Her mind butted against the same issue it did when contemplating killing the man herself: the other Yokai. There might be dissenters here and there, but she was certain they made up only a fraction of the total tribe. Killing Callaghan would do nothing but paint a target on Obake's own back, and the whole tribe would probably fall to infighting within the week. No, if Obake was planning such a thing, he'd have to plan something big that would ensure no one would dream of fighting back.

And he might be clever, but she couldn't picture such a thing.

"That's crazy," Audrey said, eyeing Helga and Momakase. "You're both crazy—we're never getting rid of Callaghan."

Vinnie was chewing on a match, contemplating something. "And if you did get rid of him…then what?"

Then what indeed. Everyone would start fighting each other, most of the tribe would be dead, and even if they escaped the carnage, they had garnered too fearsome a reputation; showing their faces anywhere else in the Archipelago or the neighboring areas would see them dead.

But it did make her curious—whatever Obake was planning, whether it be Callaghan's death or perhaps an escape….

She wanted in.