Hi! Ciu here, finally, -finally- ready to present you with the second chapter of "To Look at an Ice Prince."
Culinary: I'm here too! I came back after a long muse-ish vacation, and now Ciu is bursting with ideas thanks to me
Ciu: --;; first the desert and then the floods come. Try to stem it next time, hey?
Culinary: Nope!
Ciu: Why you--
Culinary: um, don't forget to read "To Look at a Sniper" either! It's written by Hieica (Ciu's koi) and is the partner to TLAAIP, just in Touya's pov instead of snipers. Thought of everything, haven't they?
Ciu: . . .right. What the cookbook said. As the disclaimer isn't all that necessary because if I (or my koi for that matter) owned YYH, there definitely be some . . .changes. SO then, On To The Fic!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------
And I walked back to where I was staying.
.... Or I started to, anyway. I think I successfully went ten steps in the direction of my lodge, when a certain red-headed whirlwind bore down on me again.
"'Ey there, Snipey!! Uh, we need yer help!!" Jin said.
Even though I had only just met him, it seemed wrong that Jin seemed semi- serious. That definitely meant something was wrong. But what could I do to help them? I am simply human.
"It's Touya!!" He said, gripping onto my arm.
I turned my eyes to him, puzzlement reflected clearly. "What is--"
Jin interrupted me. "Please, we gotta go!!"
I didn't even need to think, I just nodded my head.
While I was in the air, I almost wished that I hadn't walked away. It might've saved Jin time, and if it had to do with Touya, I'd have rather that that time had been saved.
"Jin? Could you explain what is going on now?" Whether or not the flight would be a long one, I still wanted to know why I was part of it.
"Uh, well...heh..." Jin would have rubbed the back of his head, but he was kind of holding onto me at the moment.
"Well? It must be my business if you're flying me over there."
"Actually...uh, never mind..." He said, and looked straight ahead.
"If you aren't going to tell me, then please put me down." I wasn't very happy about having to threaten Jin so he would tell me what was up, but it couldn't be helped.
"Oh alrigh'. Look, me an' Toy are part of this team, aside from the team we entered with. An the leader of it is this...person who isn't the best of people. Okie?"
All right, he had issues with his team leader. That was not my problem, right? "But what does this have to do with me?"
"Um, uh...well, uh, y'see..." He said, itching his nose nervously.
This was really starting to irritate me. If it had nothing to do with me, then why was he attempting to involve me? If he weren't trying to involve me, then I wouldn't be interrogating him.
"Well...?" I asked once again.
"Uh, well, y'see...HEY, there they are!!" He said, somewhat relieved.
Gee, how convenient, I thought. But, before I knew it, Jin's arms released me and I was falling.
I landed a bit awkwardly, as I hadn't expected the sudden drop. Taking a second to right my self and to look around, I stopped dead as I saw the two other people that were in the clearing.
Fortunately, I only froze for an instant before I took action. After all I was not exactly going to watch Touya cringe and wait for some one to hit him! Next thing I knew, I had caught the guy's fist in my hand, and he was glaring at me as if he expected it would make me cower in fear.
Touya opened one of those crystal eyes and looked at me in either surprise, shock, or confusion. The man whose fist I had caught looked at me with mad, wild eyes.
"Stop!" Touya shouted.
The man and I turned our heads to face him. And I realized too late that the man raised his other arm. I watched in anger as Touya flew across the clearing.
I wasn't all that aware of the disgusted look on my face as I reached back my own gloved fist.
"What do you think you are doing human?!" He looked as if he was going to spit on me.
"Well at the moment," I punched him. Hard, knocking him down." "I'm getting mad."
I had hoped that my punch would keep him down for good so I wouldn't have waste any energy on him, but he got back to his feet fairly quickly.
"Watch out! Behind you!"
I looked over my shoulder to see the mound of earth, and I quickly evaded, leaping away from the freak's attack. The man was glaring evilly in Touya's direction, a look that said; "Don't interfere!" Next thing I knew, he had been buried in another one of the dirt-controller's attacks.
I attempted to help, quickly snatching a single die from my pocket, and shooting it at the earth-man. He fell and I raced over to where the ice demon had been buried in his coffin-like mound. I immediately started to claw away the dirt, and I succeeded in reaching him.
He emerged from the dirt and coughed, gasping for air.
"Are you alright?" Not really sure whether it would be accepted or not, I offered my hand. His reaction was...surprising to say the least, as if he could not comprehend that I was offering help. He did take it though, after another moment's hesitation, and I pulled him up. Unfortunately I didn't calculate the fact that he was so light and he tripped forward. I caught him without even thinking about it, and his automatic reaction was gripping my sleeves to steady himself.
He peered up at me, and I was immediately overcome by his eyes. The obviously deep dwelling emotions, hidden underneath a protective icy covering. I found that I couldn't pull away from those eyes.
Of course, I didn't have to. He slightly pushed away, letting go of my sleeves and bowed his head. "My apologies."
What the hell was that? I was the one who wrenched him up off of the ground. As if to tell him to stop acting so menial, I spoke as well. "No, it was my fault."
"Well...thank you Sniper." And then there was a pause. And all during that pause I couldn't get over the fact that he was -still- staring at the ground, -still- acting as if he was lower than the dirt the Earth-man was manipulating, and still--
"Sniper?"
He was actually looking at me. Well, that cut my mental rant in two. "Yes Touya?"
"W...why did you come here?" He bowed his head again. "Why did you interfere?...and exactly how did you interfere?"
That certainly took me aback. "I'm...not sure I understand..."
He sighed, seemed to pull himself together, and tried, though failing slightly, to act strict with his words. "Why are you here?" He asked.
I subconsciously rubbed the back of my head. I myself didn't know the answer. "I..."
"Well?"
I decided to be honest. "I don't know...I can't explain it...why was he attacking you, anyway?"
He gave me a slight glare. "Don't try to dodge my questions."
I blinked. I wasn't the one dodging the questions here.
He didn't seem to notice, and instead leaned over to look at the still form of his attacker. ".... what did you do to him?"
I tried to avoid telling Touya exactly what I had done, so I stuck with phrasing the obvious. "I knocked him out. He won't be up for a while."
As soon as I said that Touya...cringed. Lowering his eyes yet again he spoke even softer than he had before. "Yes...you did well."
He really can't lie. "What is wrong?" I ask.
"I...nothing is wrong. Thank you for your help" He turns to go. "Still, next time; if you are around, please don't come into the fight. The outcome will be worse if he..." and then he stops abruptly, as if too much has been said.
On impulse, I gripped his shoulder. I know that it isn't any of my business, but still...it seemed wrong that nobody would do anything about it. "Touya, why will there be a next time? And what do you mean 'the outcome will be worse'?"
He pulled away from me again. "Reisho is in the habit of taking out his anger or frustration regularly. And he'll be angry when he wakes up."
And he left at that moment. I didn't know what to do. In my life, I've never felt so completely useless as this.
So his name is Reisho eh? Huh. Well at least I know the name of my new adversary. I was tempted to make sure that Reisho -didn't- wake up, just so he wouldn't torment Touya ever again, and that shows how angry I was. I never take advantage of a person when they are obviously defeated. It was interesting though; the name Reisho seemed very familiar. I was positive I had heard it before, quite recently, but where...?
!!!
Then it hit. That was who Jin was ranting about before! And if this ...person is the same Reisho, then he must be the earth-master and team leader.
Glaring and fighting down the urge to kick him, I decided to do it while he was conscious once again.
"..." and being that he was beginning to wake up, that wouldn't be too long a wait for me. Making sure I had plenty of dice with me, I backed away a bit, ready for this Reisho to fully awaken and challenge me.
Reisho started to stir, and I waited patiently until he began to stand, glancing around--then Wham! I punched him. Hard. He sailed back a little, using the dirt that he was famous for his control to right himself.
I didn't give him recovery time. I struck again. I wasn't just annoyed with this "Earth Master," I was enraged.
And while I hit him, I realized that I didn't know why I was.
I didn't understand why he angered me so, why the pitiful site of him made me want to rip out his insides. I wondered... if these people were different, if Touya wasn't the beaten, and if this disgusting vermin glaring at me wasn't the beater, would I still have done something to attempt to stop it?
I found that I couldn't stop hitting him, no matter what my mind told my fists, they weren't listening.
I did stop eventually though. Unfortunately, I didn't do it on purpose. Reisho 'woke up' and began his offense-defense of dirt again. Pretty soon I was dodging around the clearing again, shooting him with my dice whenever possible. When I managed to hit him, it did set him more on edge, but with all my moving around, I couldn't get a clear shot in.
Landing in front of a tree, I paused for one second too many. I just barely avoided getting smashed by the earth hill, but the tree wasn't so lucky. It...for lack of a better word, shattered with a loud explosive sound. If there were any birds who had stayed before, they were sure to be gone by now.
""You insolent human scum!!! Stay STILL!" Reisho was getting madder by the second, and I was almost just as mad as he was. So ticked off in fact, that I retorted with an insult of my own. Something I usually never did.
"Right! Of course I will oh powerful one!" There! I got a clear shot, right to his chest. The die knocked him off balance and he stumbled backward yelling all the while.
"I AM powerful! And you are just some human nuisance that took it into your head to interrupt important business of mine!" Did I mention it seemed like I was getting Reisho mad? He doubled his effort to catch me, making the dirt rise up in waves. I dodged most of them, but one of the dirt mounds was too high for me. I covered my head with my arms, hoping to block some of the damage as the earth descended on me, but...it didn't...
Instead, I felt the wind whistle in my ears, and heard Reisho sputtering angrily from--somewhere below me.
"JIN!! YOU DARE?!?"
I looked down, wondering why I was floating right now. Then I looked up and saw Jin, holding the collar of my jacket, whistling "innocently", as though he wasn't actually holding me in midair. Jin caught my gaze and gave me a peace sign. I blinked. At this point though, I was just satisfied that my jacket had not been zipped, because I didn't really want to be choked at this moment.
"JIN! You had better drop him, THIS INSTANT!"
The wind master, to my surprise, simply laughed at Reisho, who, in turn turned beet red. "Are ya threatenin' me? Y' should know that I can beat da crap outta ya any day!" Jin said with a wide grin.
Now I was a little confused. If Touya feared Reisho, why didn't Jin...?
"You...you..." Words cannot express how angry he was. Angry doesn't even begin to describe it.
"Jin!" I turned my head in surprise to see the blue-haired ice master. I didn't even notice that he was here... it seemed Reisho was just as surprised. We all stared at Touya in shock for a little while, and then he continued talking.
"Jin, put Sniper down, or even better; take him away. Leave. Let our Shinobi leader deal with me. For being" He bowed his head, shielding his eyes. "...insolent."
Jin stared at him in shock. So did I, for that matter, although Jin was the one who spoke first. "T-toy, ya can't be serious!?"
Touya nodded, keeping his head down, in what I took to be a blatant act of submission. Reisho seemed to think so too, and smiled malevolently. "Yes, you must be punished for your insolence..." That was it, I was beyond ticked off, mad and angry now. I was seething. Mostly at Reisho of course, but also at the Ice Master's lack of even trying to stand up for himself. He was practically DEFENDING Reisho!
"You-you fool!"
He snapped his head up, eyes wide. Goggling at the one yelling at him. Me.
"You are a coward!"
I couldn't help myself. I couldn't hold it in, yet I couldn't let it all out at once. Touya, at the least, was certainly very surprised. As was Jin, whose grip on me loosened for a split second.
I couldn't stop myself. "There are people willing to stand up for you, and you push them aside, for THEIR sake! If they hadn't cared or known about the danger they were putting themselves in, then they wouldn't try to help! Yet you still push them away!"
I released myself from my jacket and fell to the ground. I was glaring at him. I didn't mean to. "You are a fool..."
And, for the first time since I had seen him, he raised his voice. "Maybe so, but I would rather be hurt than anybody else!" Surprised? Yes. Still upset? Very. Willing to accept that as an explanation? No. Way.
End Chapter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Whoa! Seven whole pages. O.o this is possibly the longest chapter of anything I have ever wrote in my life. Maybe this means there is more improvement out there waiting for me! Please review to tell me what you think of TLAAIP so far, and please don't forget to read Hieica's Touya-pov partner to it either. ToudaRabah!
Culinary: I'm here too! I came back after a long muse-ish vacation, and now Ciu is bursting with ideas thanks to me
Ciu: --;; first the desert and then the floods come. Try to stem it next time, hey?
Culinary: Nope!
Ciu: Why you--
Culinary: um, don't forget to read "To Look at a Sniper" either! It's written by Hieica (Ciu's koi) and is the partner to TLAAIP, just in Touya's pov instead of snipers. Thought of everything, haven't they?
Ciu: . . .right. What the cookbook said. As the disclaimer isn't all that necessary because if I (or my koi for that matter) owned YYH, there definitely be some . . .changes. SO then, On To The Fic!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------
And I walked back to where I was staying.
.... Or I started to, anyway. I think I successfully went ten steps in the direction of my lodge, when a certain red-headed whirlwind bore down on me again.
"'Ey there, Snipey!! Uh, we need yer help!!" Jin said.
Even though I had only just met him, it seemed wrong that Jin seemed semi- serious. That definitely meant something was wrong. But what could I do to help them? I am simply human.
"It's Touya!!" He said, gripping onto my arm.
I turned my eyes to him, puzzlement reflected clearly. "What is--"
Jin interrupted me. "Please, we gotta go!!"
I didn't even need to think, I just nodded my head.
While I was in the air, I almost wished that I hadn't walked away. It might've saved Jin time, and if it had to do with Touya, I'd have rather that that time had been saved.
"Jin? Could you explain what is going on now?" Whether or not the flight would be a long one, I still wanted to know why I was part of it.
"Uh, well...heh..." Jin would have rubbed the back of his head, but he was kind of holding onto me at the moment.
"Well? It must be my business if you're flying me over there."
"Actually...uh, never mind..." He said, and looked straight ahead.
"If you aren't going to tell me, then please put me down." I wasn't very happy about having to threaten Jin so he would tell me what was up, but it couldn't be helped.
"Oh alrigh'. Look, me an' Toy are part of this team, aside from the team we entered with. An the leader of it is this...person who isn't the best of people. Okie?"
All right, he had issues with his team leader. That was not my problem, right? "But what does this have to do with me?"
"Um, uh...well, uh, y'see..." He said, itching his nose nervously.
This was really starting to irritate me. If it had nothing to do with me, then why was he attempting to involve me? If he weren't trying to involve me, then I wouldn't be interrogating him.
"Well...?" I asked once again.
"Uh, well, y'see...HEY, there they are!!" He said, somewhat relieved.
Gee, how convenient, I thought. But, before I knew it, Jin's arms released me and I was falling.
I landed a bit awkwardly, as I hadn't expected the sudden drop. Taking a second to right my self and to look around, I stopped dead as I saw the two other people that were in the clearing.
Fortunately, I only froze for an instant before I took action. After all I was not exactly going to watch Touya cringe and wait for some one to hit him! Next thing I knew, I had caught the guy's fist in my hand, and he was glaring at me as if he expected it would make me cower in fear.
Touya opened one of those crystal eyes and looked at me in either surprise, shock, or confusion. The man whose fist I had caught looked at me with mad, wild eyes.
"Stop!" Touya shouted.
The man and I turned our heads to face him. And I realized too late that the man raised his other arm. I watched in anger as Touya flew across the clearing.
I wasn't all that aware of the disgusted look on my face as I reached back my own gloved fist.
"What do you think you are doing human?!" He looked as if he was going to spit on me.
"Well at the moment," I punched him. Hard, knocking him down." "I'm getting mad."
I had hoped that my punch would keep him down for good so I wouldn't have waste any energy on him, but he got back to his feet fairly quickly.
"Watch out! Behind you!"
I looked over my shoulder to see the mound of earth, and I quickly evaded, leaping away from the freak's attack. The man was glaring evilly in Touya's direction, a look that said; "Don't interfere!" Next thing I knew, he had been buried in another one of the dirt-controller's attacks.
I attempted to help, quickly snatching a single die from my pocket, and shooting it at the earth-man. He fell and I raced over to where the ice demon had been buried in his coffin-like mound. I immediately started to claw away the dirt, and I succeeded in reaching him.
He emerged from the dirt and coughed, gasping for air.
"Are you alright?" Not really sure whether it would be accepted or not, I offered my hand. His reaction was...surprising to say the least, as if he could not comprehend that I was offering help. He did take it though, after another moment's hesitation, and I pulled him up. Unfortunately I didn't calculate the fact that he was so light and he tripped forward. I caught him without even thinking about it, and his automatic reaction was gripping my sleeves to steady himself.
He peered up at me, and I was immediately overcome by his eyes. The obviously deep dwelling emotions, hidden underneath a protective icy covering. I found that I couldn't pull away from those eyes.
Of course, I didn't have to. He slightly pushed away, letting go of my sleeves and bowed his head. "My apologies."
What the hell was that? I was the one who wrenched him up off of the ground. As if to tell him to stop acting so menial, I spoke as well. "No, it was my fault."
"Well...thank you Sniper." And then there was a pause. And all during that pause I couldn't get over the fact that he was -still- staring at the ground, -still- acting as if he was lower than the dirt the Earth-man was manipulating, and still--
"Sniper?"
He was actually looking at me. Well, that cut my mental rant in two. "Yes Touya?"
"W...why did you come here?" He bowed his head again. "Why did you interfere?...and exactly how did you interfere?"
That certainly took me aback. "I'm...not sure I understand..."
He sighed, seemed to pull himself together, and tried, though failing slightly, to act strict with his words. "Why are you here?" He asked.
I subconsciously rubbed the back of my head. I myself didn't know the answer. "I..."
"Well?"
I decided to be honest. "I don't know...I can't explain it...why was he attacking you, anyway?"
He gave me a slight glare. "Don't try to dodge my questions."
I blinked. I wasn't the one dodging the questions here.
He didn't seem to notice, and instead leaned over to look at the still form of his attacker. ".... what did you do to him?"
I tried to avoid telling Touya exactly what I had done, so I stuck with phrasing the obvious. "I knocked him out. He won't be up for a while."
As soon as I said that Touya...cringed. Lowering his eyes yet again he spoke even softer than he had before. "Yes...you did well."
He really can't lie. "What is wrong?" I ask.
"I...nothing is wrong. Thank you for your help" He turns to go. "Still, next time; if you are around, please don't come into the fight. The outcome will be worse if he..." and then he stops abruptly, as if too much has been said.
On impulse, I gripped his shoulder. I know that it isn't any of my business, but still...it seemed wrong that nobody would do anything about it. "Touya, why will there be a next time? And what do you mean 'the outcome will be worse'?"
He pulled away from me again. "Reisho is in the habit of taking out his anger or frustration regularly. And he'll be angry when he wakes up."
And he left at that moment. I didn't know what to do. In my life, I've never felt so completely useless as this.
So his name is Reisho eh? Huh. Well at least I know the name of my new adversary. I was tempted to make sure that Reisho -didn't- wake up, just so he wouldn't torment Touya ever again, and that shows how angry I was. I never take advantage of a person when they are obviously defeated. It was interesting though; the name Reisho seemed very familiar. I was positive I had heard it before, quite recently, but where...?
!!!
Then it hit. That was who Jin was ranting about before! And if this ...person is the same Reisho, then he must be the earth-master and team leader.
Glaring and fighting down the urge to kick him, I decided to do it while he was conscious once again.
"..." and being that he was beginning to wake up, that wouldn't be too long a wait for me. Making sure I had plenty of dice with me, I backed away a bit, ready for this Reisho to fully awaken and challenge me.
Reisho started to stir, and I waited patiently until he began to stand, glancing around--then Wham! I punched him. Hard. He sailed back a little, using the dirt that he was famous for his control to right himself.
I didn't give him recovery time. I struck again. I wasn't just annoyed with this "Earth Master," I was enraged.
And while I hit him, I realized that I didn't know why I was.
I didn't understand why he angered me so, why the pitiful site of him made me want to rip out his insides. I wondered... if these people were different, if Touya wasn't the beaten, and if this disgusting vermin glaring at me wasn't the beater, would I still have done something to attempt to stop it?
I found that I couldn't stop hitting him, no matter what my mind told my fists, they weren't listening.
I did stop eventually though. Unfortunately, I didn't do it on purpose. Reisho 'woke up' and began his offense-defense of dirt again. Pretty soon I was dodging around the clearing again, shooting him with my dice whenever possible. When I managed to hit him, it did set him more on edge, but with all my moving around, I couldn't get a clear shot in.
Landing in front of a tree, I paused for one second too many. I just barely avoided getting smashed by the earth hill, but the tree wasn't so lucky. It...for lack of a better word, shattered with a loud explosive sound. If there were any birds who had stayed before, they were sure to be gone by now.
""You insolent human scum!!! Stay STILL!" Reisho was getting madder by the second, and I was almost just as mad as he was. So ticked off in fact, that I retorted with an insult of my own. Something I usually never did.
"Right! Of course I will oh powerful one!" There! I got a clear shot, right to his chest. The die knocked him off balance and he stumbled backward yelling all the while.
"I AM powerful! And you are just some human nuisance that took it into your head to interrupt important business of mine!" Did I mention it seemed like I was getting Reisho mad? He doubled his effort to catch me, making the dirt rise up in waves. I dodged most of them, but one of the dirt mounds was too high for me. I covered my head with my arms, hoping to block some of the damage as the earth descended on me, but...it didn't...
Instead, I felt the wind whistle in my ears, and heard Reisho sputtering angrily from--somewhere below me.
"JIN!! YOU DARE?!?"
I looked down, wondering why I was floating right now. Then I looked up and saw Jin, holding the collar of my jacket, whistling "innocently", as though he wasn't actually holding me in midair. Jin caught my gaze and gave me a peace sign. I blinked. At this point though, I was just satisfied that my jacket had not been zipped, because I didn't really want to be choked at this moment.
"JIN! You had better drop him, THIS INSTANT!"
The wind master, to my surprise, simply laughed at Reisho, who, in turn turned beet red. "Are ya threatenin' me? Y' should know that I can beat da crap outta ya any day!" Jin said with a wide grin.
Now I was a little confused. If Touya feared Reisho, why didn't Jin...?
"You...you..." Words cannot express how angry he was. Angry doesn't even begin to describe it.
"Jin!" I turned my head in surprise to see the blue-haired ice master. I didn't even notice that he was here... it seemed Reisho was just as surprised. We all stared at Touya in shock for a little while, and then he continued talking.
"Jin, put Sniper down, or even better; take him away. Leave. Let our Shinobi leader deal with me. For being" He bowed his head, shielding his eyes. "...insolent."
Jin stared at him in shock. So did I, for that matter, although Jin was the one who spoke first. "T-toy, ya can't be serious!?"
Touya nodded, keeping his head down, in what I took to be a blatant act of submission. Reisho seemed to think so too, and smiled malevolently. "Yes, you must be punished for your insolence..." That was it, I was beyond ticked off, mad and angry now. I was seething. Mostly at Reisho of course, but also at the Ice Master's lack of even trying to stand up for himself. He was practically DEFENDING Reisho!
"You-you fool!"
He snapped his head up, eyes wide. Goggling at the one yelling at him. Me.
"You are a coward!"
I couldn't help myself. I couldn't hold it in, yet I couldn't let it all out at once. Touya, at the least, was certainly very surprised. As was Jin, whose grip on me loosened for a split second.
I couldn't stop myself. "There are people willing to stand up for you, and you push them aside, for THEIR sake! If they hadn't cared or known about the danger they were putting themselves in, then they wouldn't try to help! Yet you still push them away!"
I released myself from my jacket and fell to the ground. I was glaring at him. I didn't mean to. "You are a fool..."
And, for the first time since I had seen him, he raised his voice. "Maybe so, but I would rather be hurt than anybody else!" Surprised? Yes. Still upset? Very. Willing to accept that as an explanation? No. Way.
End Chapter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Whoa! Seven whole pages. O.o this is possibly the longest chapter of anything I have ever wrote in my life. Maybe this means there is more improvement out there waiting for me! Please review to tell me what you think of TLAAIP so far, and please don't forget to read Hieica's Touya-pov partner to it either. ToudaRabah!