Chapter XI: Relocated

Ragna, Torakaka, Makoto, and Noel stood on lookout as Makoto's tribe moved along the forest path. Tora was the one who knew where the Kaka's hallowed grounds were located, so she took the front of the pack in order to both guard it and give directions. Noel and Makoto were both closer to the center so that they could keep an eye out on either sides. This left the Grim Reaper in the back.

Ragna was a little worried about his current standings. Sure he didn't know exactly where they were going and it made sense for Makoto and Noel to guard the middle, but this left him in the back… with Makoto's mother. She hadn't said anything to him since they'd started traveling, but he was waiting for her just to kill him for something she knew he'd done wrong. That aura that he'd gotten from her before they'd left had frightened him.

'If she's angry at me for something I'd rather she just kill me for it and save me the worrying,' he thought to himself grimly. While this was worrying the Reaper somewhat, he kept himself occupied for looking out for trouble. They may have been close to the Kaka clan's territory, but they weren't close enough that the NOL would try to attack them. If those bastards were going to chase after them, he wanted to be ready. He felt himself getting stronger ever since he'd beaten Terumi atop the NOL tower, but he still had no idea where all of this new strength was coming from.

"You and Makoto seem close," her mother said, breaking the standing silence between the two.

Ragna shrugged as he continued to stay on constant lookout, his new spear hefted over his shoulder. "Yeah, well I guess you could say we started our relationship by standing up for each other. I stand up for her in public and beat up anyone who calls her a freak of nature or worse, and she does her best to convince others that I'm a decent person… myself included."

"So you look out for each other?"

"Something like that. When we first met I managed to save her life from this insane scientist who was about to kill her.

"So how far have you gone?"

Ragna nearly lost his grip on his spear. 'Did she really just ask me that!?' He looked at Makoto's mother and saw that while her expression was neutral, she seemed to have that dark aura around her, awaiting an answer. "We haven't gone far at all! Especially not if you consider… that!"

He heard giggles and noticed that a few of the village's mothers had noticed his little outburst. Ragna blushed slightly, but he noticed that Mrs. Nanaya was among those who were giggling at him. "Ragna you're just too innocent!"

"And you're making fun of me! What the heck!?" Ragna demanded agitatedly. He heard footsteps and saw Noel running towards him. "Something wrong?"

"I just talked to Tora. She says that she can see the grounds from here so we should be there relatively soon."

"Sounds good," Ragna noted. "Where's Makoto?"

"She's in the middle talking with a couple of her old friends. They seem to be gossiping about the two of you a lot."

'Shit,' the Reaper thought to himself. He noticed that he was getting another round of giggles directed at him, this time from the infant in Mrs. Nanaya's arms. "What's he laughing at?"

"You made a funny face just now, I guess Michael noticed. Isn't that right little guy?" Michael continued giggle as his mother rocked him slightly. Ragna let out a sigh; to be laughed at by an infant was pretty demeaning. 'Still, it beats being sworn at by Luna. This kid seems to be the more mature of those two.'

"Well I'd better to get back to the center," Noel told them. "I'll see you when we get there." With that the Ex-officer ran off.

"Don't you people have anything better to talk about than me and Makoto?" Ragna demanded.

Makoto's mother gave him a somewhat sly grin. "All of the humans have always seen even affiliating themselves with Beastkin as something as a taboo, so for someone to fall in love with one is pretty extraordinary."

"Seriously? Huh, who would've guessed?" Ragna didn't really feel like he was doing anything all that spectacular, sure being with Makoto was great and all, but world changing? He didn't see it. 'Almost like I'm following in my master's footsteps in a way…Or Nine's footsteps in my case.'

"By the way Ragna," Makoto's mother began. "There's something I want to be sure you know."

"Yeah, what's that?"

Makoto's mother gave a sweet and innocent smile. "Break my daughter's heart in any way and Reaper or not, I'll have you castrated."

'…what?' Ragna thought, his skin growing pale.

"So try not to do that, okay? I've always wanted grandchildren."

"WHAT!?" Ragna demanded. 'The way she said it was so… CASUAL.'

"You heard me," Makoto's mother said with that same smile on her face.

'I've got to stop this.' "Look, Mrs. Nanaya, I-!"

"Please call me 'mom'."

That had been the last straw for Ragna. The shock hit his brain far too quickly, he hit the ground fainting after what he'd just heard. It was a case of the classic anime fall.

"Oh my," Makoto's mother said. "You'd think he'd learn how to take a joke."

"So you were only joking?" One of the other mothers asked her.

"We'll seeeeeeee," Mrs. Nanaya said in a sing-song voice, Michael continuing to laugh in her arms. The mothers sighed to themselves, even if Mr. Nanaya was the chief in title, it was pretty obvious who ran this village.

*Time Skip- The Hallowed Grounds*

The Hallowed grounds looked like they'd been abandoned for quite a while, but it would work. The ground could be used for farming and there were plenty of trees to us as homes once they'd gotten started.

"I can't thank you enough," the chief said to Torakaka. "With this we finally have the means to start a new life without having to worry about the NOL."

"It's no problem, mow," Tora said to the man. "And if you really want to thank someone, I'd suggest you thank Ragna… when he awakens. Meow."

"When he awakens?" the chief asked. That was before he noticed Ragna slumped over on the ground unconscious, his eyes now swirls. Makoto was poking him in the back trying to wake him up. "The hell happened to him?"

"You'll have to ask him that when he awakens, meow. All I know is that he passed out on the road and we had to put him into one of the carts."

Meanwhile, Makoto's strategy to awaken Ragna wasn't getting any results, he stayed… well out of it. 'Great, now what do I do? And what happened to make him like this? I wonder if I can wake him up by… all right let's try it.' "Terumi!?"

Instantly Ragna's eyes shot wide open and he was on his feet with his sword drawn. He scanned the area carefully, not making a sound or movement, before he finally put his sword away.

'That actually worked… pretty obvious, I guess?' Makoto thought to herself. "Welcome back, have a nice nap?"

"You think I was napping?" Ragna asked sarcastically as he put his sword back in place. He noticed that the sword he'd been carrying was on the ground so he decided to pick it up and hefted it over his shoulder. "If that was the case I would've at least waited until we made it to the village."

"Then what happened? Mom said that you just decided to lie down and fall asleep."

A tick mark was visible on Ragna's forehead. 'That's not what happened at all!' Then he remembered what happened to get him unconscious in the first place and his face turned red. "Well, I don't think that's exactly right," Ragna said, scratching the back of his head.

"So what did happen?" Makoto asked.

"Ask your mother," Ragna said, trying to hide the blush on his face.

'Why's he acting so weird? Usually he gives me a straight answer,' Makoto thought to herself, a little annoyed. "Fine, I will!"

As Makoto went off to consult her mother again, Ragna made his way to help the villagers unload the materials. They were a little hesitant at first, but at the very least they were getting some good help from him.

"So Makoto, huh?" one of them, Jeff, asked him.

"What about her?" Ragna asked as he started unloading some of the tree cutting tools that would be used to make new homes.

"Just wondering how someone finally managed to put the charms on ol' Makoto the Typhoon."

"The Typhoon? What the hell are you talking about?" Ragna demanded.

"Back when she was in the village she was known as the ultimate tomboy. Even the most of the guys were scared of her. Whenever there was a sporting event or something that required muscle, she always won, by a mile and a half."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," Ragna said without interest. "As for putting the charms on her, you tend to get close after going through a couple of life death situations."

"I can see that," another of the men, Roy, said. It was just then that Makoto returned. Ragna and everyone else was about to greet her, before they noticed how red her face was she.

"She told you?" Ragna asked. Makoto nodded, unable to look him in the eye. "Well I can see why you warned me about her, anyways how's the progress for making a new village?"

"It's going pretty fast. This isn't the first time the Beastkin have had to move, so we're used to this sort of thing."

"Well there's some good news at least," Ragna said plainly. "What about your family?"

"They're doing fine, but the twins won't stop that annoying chant about me having a boyfriend… that and my mom decided to give me some… advice."

"I'll ask that you don't tell me what she said," Ragna said shaking his head. "You going to stay here for a while?"

"I guess?" Makoto said unsure. "What about you?"

"I was going to head out for Ikaruga, but if you want to make sure your family's safe I guess we can stick around for a bit."

"Thanks Ragna," Makoto said giving her boyfriend a hug which he returned. After heading off to see her family, Ragna noticed that the guys from earlier were giving him some odd looks.

"What did I do?" Ragna asked.

"Nothing," Jeff said. "It's just… strange, after learning about how humans saw and treated us, we all came to hate them early in our lives. Makoto actually hated them more than any of us."

"And here she is dating one," Bill (another guy) said. "Honestly, it's a surprise to all of us. You know when we were kids, we used to come up with ways to scare humans."

"Get out," Ragna said surprised.

"No it's true, hers were usually the scariest and thought out" Roy assured. "And guess who was leading it every time. Makoto! She even used to play revolutionary with us when we were kids."

"What's revolutionary entail?" Ragna asked just as he finished unloading the final box.

"Pretty basic. What happens is we play as soldiers of war against the NOL as a sort of freedom fighter. We'd pretend to fight against the NOL soldiers and rescue Beastkin from them."

"So basically what I'm doing with her now?" Ragna said allowing himself a chuckle with the irony.

"Yeah, anyways we got the stuff unloaded so we can handle the distribution of tools from here," Jeff told him. "Thanks for the help and Reaper?"

"What is it?"

"The NOL may have been about to kill the chief's daughter, but you saved both me and my wife with what you did. I'm not about to forget that, so thank you."

"Yeah, thanks for that," Roy added. Bill gave a respectful nod.

"No problem," Ragna said with a smile as he made his way to the other areas.

He noticed that there were some kids running around exploding their new homes. The adults were doing their best to keep an eye on them, but those little scamps were pretty fast. More than once Ragna had to dodge to the side to keep one of the kids from running into him, though he got a chuckle out of all the energy they had as they proceeded to flee from Noel who was trying to gather them.

On one side of a clearing he noticed that several of the mothers that had been with him back when he was traveling on the road were unloading some of the cooking utensils and some of the food that they'd brought with them.

"Getting things ready for dinner?" Ragna asked as he made his way over.

"Don't worry, we'll let you know when it's ready," a woman said as she pointed a ladle right into his face. "And not a moment before!" Something told Ragna this one didn't give a damn if he was the Reaper; her kitchen, her rules.

"Problem?" he asked, arms crossed.

"In our village all of the children try to sneak food out before its ready during these kinds of things. Some of the men try it too. I'm guessing that's why you're here."

"Actually I was offering to help out," Ragna told them.

"What? You know how to cook?"

"I can work my way around a kitchen or a campsite if need be," Ragna said without bravado. "So what do you need help with? I can start the fire, tenderize the meat, cut the vegetables; just let me know where I'm needed."

"Huh, well if you're that eager to help, why don't you start by cutting some vegetables for the stew we're making?"

"No problem," Ragna said as he grabbed a knife and went to work on the vegetables. While he worked there he chatted up with the women for a bit. Most of them thanked him for saving them from the Librarium and other asked details about his relationship with Makoto. He told them about the date that they'd had in Kagutsuchi. He got a laugh out of all of them when he told them about they got in at the club they visited.

"Somehow I think Makoto might've enjoyed the fight more than the nightclub," Terri, one of the mothers said to him with a giggle. "Good of you to stand up for her in public though. I doubt most people would do that for her."

"Well I think I've established that I'm not most people," Ragna countered with a laugh as he finished dicing the carrots. "Well there's that done, anything else I can help with?"

"I think we're alright for now, thanks for the help Ragna," the head chef said to him. Ragna nodded as he made his way over to the other side of the clearing where he simply leaned against one of the trees.

"Thinking about something?" Makoto asked as she leaned on the tree next to him.

"Just thinking how idiotic humanity's really being now. They're judging you with disgust and thinking that they're better for no actual reasons. I was just thinking… maybe we could fix that."

Makoto grinned. "Sounds good to me, you really think you can do it?"

"I dunno," Ragna said playfully as he looked into the air. "Might need some help with it. A lot of help, hope my partner's up for it."

"You have to ask?" Makoto said to him. "I'm up for anything!"

Ragna allowed himself a smile at Makoto's energy. Maybe this was what was making him stronger, he'd found someone who he wanted to protect.

"C'mon," Ragna said to his girlfriend. "Let's play Revolutionary."

Authors Note: I don't own BlazBlue.

I know the ending was a little corny, but I could honestly see Ragna saying something like that. These two seem to work together better than I thought.

Anyways, leave a review in the comments to let me know how the story is progressing and let me know if you want me to move the story forward by sending them to Ikaruga or if you just want them to stick around the new village for a bit. I'm really fine either way.

Anyways, Rate, Review, and I'll see you next chapter.

Ciao!