Story Title: A Look Into the Child: Journey for Purpose
Chapter Title: Into the Arms of Another
Author: Mathais
Rating: T
Fandom: Ronin Warriors
Warnings: Pro-Yuli, Boys Love, Girls Love, Discontinued
Pairings: OC/OC, Yuli/Shiroi
Summary: A young boy named Yuli runs away from his surrogate home due to the tension between him and his surrogate family. He leaves to find a purpose for himself and to show that he isn't an unnecessary burden.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters and elements of Ronin Warriors. I do own Suyi, Leon, Fuumi, and Malena.
Notes (2010): This story was a pair of stories with a pro-Yuli slant; this one is what happens if the Ronins really did hate Yuli. The other, Shadowed Eyes, was one where they really didn't... and it was a poorly written abuse!fic. The latter's long since gone except on my hard drive. And wow, watch for the fangirl Japanese.
OoOoO
Yamano Yuli felt the muscles of his body fail him. He had spent too much energy. With too dim eyes, he stared forward, sending the Staff away. How he knew how to do that, he didn't know. With a final breath, Yuli closed his eyes, slumping into darkness.
Four people entered the area, whispering.
"Is he the one?" One boy asked, brushing a strand of brown hair from its position of covering one dark brown eye.
"Of course he is. Didn't you see it?" A girl answered, her blonde hair crawling all over her face in the rain.
"We saw." The other boy, his hair a dark blue, said politely.
"Yeah. Kind of good too. Unrefined, but good." The last girl, one with long back hair, admitted.
The brown haired boy shoved her. "We're still unrefined too."
The blue haired boy snapped his head up, effectively ending the bickering. "There's a hole in the fabric of space! Teleportation right here!"
"Let's move!" The black haired girl barked.
The blue haired boy picked up Yuli and the black haired girl and the other boy picked White Blaze up, but not without a little difficulty.
The last girl started to weave her hands. With a wink, they disappeared.
In a swirl of cherry blossoms, Kayura appeared right in the park. She was wearing her Spring Ogre sub-armor, but carrying the Starlight Jittes from her Demon Priestess days. Silently, she surveyed the area. "Hmm... There was definitely a battle here. Quietly, she knelt down, examining the mud. "Some people were here. They must have taken Yuli." Kayura closed her eyes, stretching her magical senses. "Lots of dark magic and light magic clashed here. And what's this?" The former Demon Priestess and last survivor of the Clan of the Ancients gasped. "Where does this teleportation go to?" With a shriek, she withdrew her senses as all traces of the teleportation exploded in her mind's eye.
"Damn." She growled. "But where's Yuli?" Her voice softened. "Why the hell was he out here anyway?"
The woman's ears twitched, hearing something she didn't want to hear. "Someone's coming." With a swing of her hand, her Starlight Jittes disappeared and the Ancient Staff appeared instead. Slamming the staff into the ground, a wave of light made the battle scars disappear as Kayura herself teleported back to the Dynasty.
"White Blaze!" A man called. "Where are you? Yuli? Are you there?" Long black hair fell from his head, ending at his waist. Sheets of red and white metal covered his body, not that he minded.
"Damn." He cursed. "I can't believe the kid ran away. And White Blaze too? What's the world coming to?" His eyes softened a bit. "That is what we constantly wished, didn't we? That Yuli would go away. Dammit! I didn't mean it seriously." With teary eyes, the man ran away, his body unseen to the naked eye.
OoOoO
Yuli groaned. "What bus hit me? And why didn't I get the license plate?"
"Here." A soft voice said as a bowl was held to his mouth. Too weak to argue, Yuli let the cold water slide down his mouth and through his worn throat. He felt a little better as he opened his eyes.
The first thing Yuli noticed that he was on a bed. Not that soft, but not that hard either. He was wearing a blue shirt and jeans that looked a little worn. Not his usual white shirt and jeans.
"Where am I?" He croaked.
"In our pocket dimension." Yuli turned his head and saw a boy there. His hair was short and a dark blue shade, almost black and his eyes were large with a cerulean hue, like large pools of water. His wore a loose t-shirt of sky blue and jeans that looked a size too small for him. They showed off his lean figure well. The boy looked to be about ten. If Yuli would dare say it, this boy was feminine.
"You're awake."
"Did you pick up my unconscious body from the park?" Yuli asked.
"Me and my friends, yeah. We also have the tiger." The boy smiled. "Boku wa Mizuga Suyi."
"Yamano Yuli." The boy nodded. "Did you say pocket dimension?"
He smiled thinly. "Yeah, I did. You see, we're all orphans and rather than going to an orphanage, we live here."
"We?" Yuli sat up.
"Me and the others." Suyi propped the other boy up. "You need help?"
Making a face, Yuli nodded. Suyi helped Yuli up and found that Yuli was taller than the other boy.
"All right then." Suyi brought the other boy down the stairs and out the door. Yuli found the two houses much the same, with modern conveniences and one more off to the side. Another boy looked up for the center of the two houses and rushed toward them.
"Suyi-chan!" The other boy called.
"Leon-kun!" Suyi smiled.
Yuli looked at the new boy. He was tall, a bit taller than himself. The boy had light brown hair that fell to his shoulders, but managed to look masculine. He also had dark brown eyes that Yuli could get lost staring in, hard, like the earth. The boy wore a brown muscle shirt and shorts that went to his knees, showing his muscular (for an eleven-year-old) body.
"This is Yuli." Suyi explained.
"Chiki Leon." The other boy nodded. "Did you have him cleaned up?"
Suyi nodded enthusiastically. "Yep!"
Leon slid his eyes over to the younger boy. Suyi's face gained a red hue. "Get your mind out of the gutter if you still want to use it."
Leon smirked slightly.
"C'mon then." The brown haired boy led them to the other building. Inside, Yuli saw two girls.
One girl had long blonde hair, looking constantly windswept. Her eyes were a cool jade, but bright. She wore a green sleeveless shirt and some plain jeans. Her legs seemed very powerful and she smiled a lot.
The other girl was different. Her eyes were a dark crimson, the color of near-black fire. The girl's hair was long and dark, black to the truest sense of the word. She wore a simple red t-shirt and brown cargo pants.
"You're awake." The crimson-eyed girl noted. "Watashi wa Hijiri Malena."
"Kazehuna Fuumi." The other girl introduced.
"Yamano Yuli." Yuli smiled, but his body was feeling a bit weak.
"What are you doing up?" Malena mock-growled, already feeling familiar with the new kid somehow. "You're supposed to be resting."
Suyi smiled sheepishly. "That's my fault."
"Land him on one of those couches and turn on the TV." Fuumi suggested, brushing back a bit of her blonde hair.
"TV?" Yuli raised an eyebrow.
"You'd be amazed at what people throw out." Leon winked. "We had Fuumi here fix everything up. That's why we have all these things."
"We do some illegal things." Suyi admitted, feeling comfortable with Yuli. "We hack into bank records and take some cash, but it's only from those really wealthy people who won't miss what we take out and never from the same account, unless we're desperate."
"You gotta do what you gotta do." Yuli admitted. He couldn't explain the instant kinship he felt with the others. He usually was a bit wary of new people.
As the three, aka the boys, walked out together, Suyi called over his shoulder. "Rice with Chinese vegetables good enough for today? Maybe some duck if you guys want. I'll do the shopping."
"That's fine." Malena nodded as the three left.
"You four work efficiently." Yuli noted.
"Yeah." Leon smiled. "I do all the physical labor around here, not that there's much. I also love gardening. Trees and flowers are my forte. Suyi's the most artistic of us all. He loves to draw and made the designs for the houses. Plus, he also does the cooking."
"If I didn't, you'd all be resorting to take out every day." Suyi put in dryly. Leon flashed him a quick glare.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted." Suyi snorted. "Suyi's the artistic one, but is completely abysmal with computers unless he's using them to surf the web. His stories are fascinating. Fuumi loves to dance. She's a dancer, sprinter, anything that uses her legs. She's also a whiz with technology and can hotwire a car very quickly. All the technological things here are because she fixed them all from scratch. Book smart too." Leon smiled once more. "Malena's our fighter. She strong and deadly, but very protective of us. She's also our leader. While Fuumi's a technological whiz, Malena's our hacker. Fuumi can't hack, but Malena's good. Very good."
"You keep him safe." Suyi said sternly as they placed Yuli inside the house he was in before.
"Yeah, I will." Leon nodded.
Suyi walked out of the house. A simple portal appeared in front of him.
"If there's any sign of teleportation, I want you back here in an instant!" Leon called. "And cover your tracks!"
"Hai kaa-san!" Suyi waved as he stepped through and disappeared.
As Yuli made himself comfortable, Leon turned on the TV, but sighed a bit.
"I don't understand this at all!" Leon cried miserably, his face burying itself into the worn couch.
"The fact that everything seems too unrealistic? The feeling that we've known each other for a while, yet you're positively sure we've never seen each other before." Yuli babbled, his feelings taking control of him. "The feeling of comfort by having me here that seems so right, it doesn't seem right? How we all seem to get along, despite knowing me for less than an hour?"
"Exactly." Leon whispered. "That hits it on the head. I didn't know that anyone could accurately describe this."
Yuli shrugged. "I don't know. Will you believe it just came out?"
Leon smirked. "Definitely."
The two continued to talk for a while, Yuli getting answers to everything except why they lived in a subspace dimension.
A nice smell drifted through the room, causing the two boys to look up.
Yuli sniffed and smiled dreamily. "Ooh... That smells nice."
Leon licked his lips. "I never get tired of Suyi's cooking. Imagine what he'll be like later on."
"A mini-Cye." Yuli muttered, almost standing. He didn't want to move from the cocoon of blankets that he found himself in when he gathered the blankets on the soft couch. He cocked his head to the side. "Where did you get this? It's softer than a bed."
Leon gave a lop-sided half-smile. "On a curb."
"Who in their right mind would give this," Yuli gestured to the fluffiness around him, "up?"
"Obviously someone who didn't have a choice." Leon said.
With a sigh, Yuli extracted himself from the cocoon and then blinked. "White Blaze!"
"C'mon then." Leon led the boy through the house and outside. Yuli rushed toward the final house. What he saw inside of there made him freeze.
"Beautiful." Leon whispered.
A lithe figure was huddled together, shivering slightly. He was tall, but thin, and had a heart-shaped face. Black hair was short and curved around his ears and neck. A red shirt covered the top while some blue shorts went from the waist down. That showed enough of lean muscles and despite being ten, Yuli had to forcefully stop himself from drooling.
"White Blaze?" Yuli asked, shaking the boy before him.
The boy's eyes snapped open. Noticing that he was in his natural form, the boy gasped. "You're not supposed to see me like this!"
"Too late." Yuli remarked, eyeing White Blaze up and down. "Are you still White Blaze?"
He shook his head. "Shiroi."
"Nice name." Yuli smiled.
"Thank you." Shiroi blushed. "Are you all right? You took some nasty hits during the battle."
"I'm fine. The question is whether you're all right or not." Yuli pointed out.
"Other than a small headache, no." Shiroi smiled, but turned to Leon and cocked his head to the side. "Why are you eyeing me up and down like that?"
Leon was, in fact, staring at Shiroi. "I approve."
Both boys blinked.
Leon circled Shiroi and chuckled. "In fact, I'd go after you if I didn't already have Suyi."
The full implications hit them and Shiroi blushed really red.
"You're dating Suyi?" Yuli cried.
"Yeah." Leon nodded.
"That's so cool!" Yuli bounced around the room.
"How old are you anyway?" Leon shifted gears and turned to Shiroi.
"Twelve." The former tiger blushed.
"That's cool!" Yuli smiled.
Shiroi then began to sniff the air. "Is that the divine aura of cooking I smell?"
"C'mon, Suyi's probably done with dinner." Leon waved a hand.
Shiroi was up and out in a flash, Yuli only a centimeter behind him. Leon chuckled as he followed them.
Malena and Fuumi glanced appraisingly at Shiroi when he raced with Yuli behind him toward.
"White Blaze, former tiger." Yuli explained as he jumped onto the taller boy's shoulders and hung off the neck. Shiroi merely giggled and carried the smaller boy.
Suyi stared at Shiroi, hand halfway from the rice cooker with rice to be scooped into five bowls.
Shiroi laid Yuli down gently and circled Suyi. "You're pretty."
Suyi blushed brightly as he closed the rice cooker and stood up. "I'll get another bowl." He all but ran for his house.
Shiroi merely chuckled.
"That wasn't nice." Leon scolded, but the smile on his face dispelled any true sting.
"It was fun though." Shiroi smiled.
Suyi came back, normal-faced, with another bowl. He continued to scoop rice as he put bowls of Chinese vegetables and duck onto the table in the center of the table in Fuumi and Malena's house.
"Dinner's ready!" Suyi called.
All six children began to eat.
"Yummy!" Shiroi smiled. "This is really good!"
"Awesome!" Yuli grinned.
Suyi merely blushed.
The six continued to eat while talking.
"So, you're a guardian in tiger form, but that isn't your real form." Leon explained.
Shiroi nodded. "I had another charge, but they're all right, so I have my current charge to protect. Yuli." He gave a strange smile to the younger boy and it made heat crawl up the boy's face.
"So, why do you live in a pocket dimension?" Yuli asked the others.
The atmosphere immediately darkened.
"We're... orphans." Leon explained. "We were born with powers, magic. Our job is to train for the next evil to come along and as a second line of defense for the Mortal Realm."
Malena spoke up. "I have the power of Rekka and sub-power of Gen."
"Suiko and Oni." Suyi responded.
Fuumi was next. "I am of the Tenku and Yami."
Leon was last. "Kongo and Doku are mine."
"You're our last defender Yuli." Malena explained. "You hold the power of Kourin and Life."
"Life?" Yuli raised an eyebrow.
"What the Clan of the Ancients represents." Shiroi explained. "I'm a guardian with Defender powers and mild Life powers. My main weapons are twin katars."
"I own the tonfas." Suyi explained.
"Daggers for me." Fuumi said.
Leon took up the litany. "I have a scythe."
Malena grinned a feral smile. "I own a chain whip."
"I probably have a staff." Yuli shrugged.
The six returned to eating, mulling over what they had learned.
OoOoO
It's been four years since that day. Four long years. All six trained in earnest for the new darkness that would be invading their world.
The owner of the Armor of Wildfire stared at the sky. Where are you, Yuli, White Blaze?
"Ryo?" The raven-haired man turned to see the holder of Strata. "What's up?"
"Just thinking about the kid." Ryo sighed. "He'd be fourteen, wouldn't he Rowen?"
"Aye, he would." Rowen nodded. "He'd probably be very mature right now."
"Where did he go?" Tear-filled eyes stared up at the Strata warrior. "Why?"
"We both know why, mate." Rowen answered quietly. "We all do."
"Did we have to do that?" Ryo asked.
"We weren't ready for a child." Rowen shrugged. "We weren't ready and Yuli paid the price."
Ryo sighed and leaned against the wall. "It hurts. It still hurts."
Rowen nodded. "It will, it will for a long time."
Wildfire let a few tears escape from his eyes. "I'm sorry Yuli. I'm so sorry!"
"We all are mate, we all are." Rowen held his crying leader in his arms as he stared at the sky. I hope you can hear us. We're all sorry for what we did. We really are. I hope we can see you again some day.
Little did he know that that meeting was going to come sooner than he thought.
OoOoO
End Notes: The idea of White Blaze having another form was taken with permission from Tenshi. Her website can be found here: http(colon)/www(dot)bishink(dot)org/
End Notes (2010): I removed the god-awful framing script that I couldn't stand to see anymore, but that and the line breaks are the only things that have changed, except some grammar errors.