((Finally, some real action… Agh, the first battle did NOT turn out at all like I had intended it. First I realized I had forgotten about Ludwig's fear of ghosts, and then everything went downhill from there. Not to mention I'm bad at writing battle scenes, and there wasn't much attack-calling because… Well, I'm embarrassed to write it. Orz Gonna just have to do it, but… meh.
I hope this chapter is still decent…))
It had been roughly two weeks since the boys had begun their training. Though Arthur and Francis were worried, there had been no real incidents. Training went well, although Ludwig adamantly refused to transform, but he watched the others and helped with what he could. Overall, things were going quite well for the group. Of course, they still had school, which was as much of a challenge for them as it was for anyone else. And thus they sat in history class, bored and tired.
"Remember, those comparative research papers are due by Monday," Mr. Johnson announced. "This includes you, Alfred."
"Aww man! I hate writing stuff!" Alfred complained. Feliciano raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Um, what day is it?" Feliciano asked innocently.
"Today is Thursday," Mr. Johnson replied.
"Oh no! My paper isn't ready at all!" Feliciano exclaimed, slightly panicked. Mr. Johnson rolled his eyes.
"If you didn't spend so much time slacking off, this wouldn't be a problem," he pointed out. "You should try to be more time efficient. Look at Kiku, for example. His assignments are always on time. I bet he's already halfway done," he added, giving Kiku an approving nod. Kiku nearly jumped when he realized he was talking about him.
"Uh, yes," Kiku replied quickly, sweating ever-so-slightly. Ludwig glanced at him worriedly.
"See? If he can do it, so can you," Mr. Johnson said.
"Yeah but Kiku can tie his shoelaces and I can't," Feliciano pointed out.
"Alright, let me rephrase that," Mr. Johnson decided, "If he can do it, you can at least make an effort to do it. Ok?"
"But making effort to do stuff sucks," Alfred argued.
"Not as much as failing. Trust me, I had to take algebra twice, you do NOT want to be in that position," Mr. Johnson insisted solemnly.
"I don't wanna write either," Alfred replied.
"I'll give you candy if you do it," Mr. Johnson said bluntly.
"Will there be tootsie pops?"
"Yes."
"Done," Alfred announced, pulling out a pencil. Matthew facepalmed.
Just then the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. The students were all rather relieved, and left to get their things.
As usual, Feliciano, Ludwig, Kiku, Alfred, and Matthew all walked to Arthur's house together.
"Your paper isn't really ready, is it?" Ludwig asked Kiku as they walked.
"...Not really, no," Kiku admitted, sighing. "I did not have very much time to work on it this week."
"Neither did I," Matthew added, smiling awkwardly.
"I haven't even started mine," Alfred said with a nervous laugh.
"Well I'm glad I'm not the only one!" Feliciano announced cheerfully. "We can all fail together!"
"Oh, sounds wonderful," Ludwig mumbled sarcastically.
"The more the merrier, right? If we all fail, then it won't be so bad!" Alfred agreed.
"Or we could just, you know, not fail," Matthew pointed out.
"Ah, it looks like we have arrived," Kiku interrupted. He went up to the front door and knocked gently, but not too quietly.
"It's unlocked," Arthur shouted from inside. Kiku glanced back at the others confusedly, and was met with shrugs. Frowning slightly, he opened the door.
"Hello," Arthur called, waving from the kitchen. His sleeves were rolled up, and he was wearing an apron with the British flag on it. He appeared to be mixing something in a bowl; Or at least, that was what the boys assumed he was trying to do. He was not doing a very good job of keeping it IN the bowl.
"I'm making scones," Arthur explained cheerfully.
"Don't eat them," Peter whispered loudly, peeking out from behind the couch.
"I heard that," Arthur shouted, giving him a look. Peter grinned sheepishly and ducked behind the couch again.
"Why shouldn't we eat them?" Feliciano asked innocently.
"Because they're terrible," Francis replied, leaning casually against the open doorway.
"Look, just because you two don't appreciate my cooking doesn't mean you should try to ruin it for everyone else," Arthur argued, crossing his arms annoyedly.
"I'm not trying to ruin it, I'm trying to save them from possible lifelong trauma," Francis insisted, smirking.
"How would you like it if I gave YOU a lifelong trauma?" Arthur retaliated darkly. Francis just laughed.
"So... Is there no training today, or what?" Alfred asked confusedly.
"There is, but you'll just have to try to manage on your own," Arthur explained simply.
"I'll make sure they don't kill themselves or anything," Francis decided.
"What's this training you keep talking about?" Peter asked, once again peeking out from the couch.
"High school stuff," Arthur replied casually.
"I want to try too! I'm smart enough!" Peter insisted.
"Trust me, you really don't," Ludwig said honestly.
"I've told you before, no," Arthur replied.
"But I can do it! Really!" Peter argued, getting frustrated.
"No means no," Arthur repeated.
"Fine! I'm not going to play with you jerks!" Peter decided, storming off. "I'm going to Raivis' house!"
"Bye! Have fun!" Feliciano said cheerfully, waving.
Arthur sighed. "Honestly, that boy..."
"Well then, let's go," Francis announced, leading the way to the secret headquarters. Once they got downstairs, he simply went to the computer, opening up Tumblr.
"Uh... Aren't you supposed to be supervising us or something?" Ludwig pointed out awkwardly.
"Oh yes... Go do whatever, just don't kill each other," Francis said distractedly, waving them away as he clicked a video on his dashboard. Ludwig rolled his eyes and mumbled something about being the only responsible person in the entire school. The others confusedly started heading towards the practice room, when suddenly some sort of alarm went off.
"Uh-oh," Francis said quietly.
"What? What happened? Did you press the self-destruct button?! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Feliciano shouted, hiding behind Ludwig.
"No, it's nothing like that," Francis replied hastily. "Um, I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere, ok?" he told them, running off to the upstairs. He quickly ran into the kitchen.
"Arthur, you need to come see this," he announced, his voice lacking the usual teasing, flirtatious quality and instead serious.
"Um, alright," Arthur replied worriedly, putting down the measuring spoon. He followed Francis back to the computer room.
"This doesn't seem good," Francis said gravely, pointing to the monitor.
Biting his lip, Arthur looked at the alert on the screen worriedly. He was silent for a moment.
"What's wrong? Is everything ok?" Matthew asked, concerned. The five boys all looked rather nervous.
"I don't think it's anything too serious, but it looks like you five are going to get to have your first real battle," he announced, sighing.
"But I don't want to fight anyone!" Feliciano insisted, flailing his arms in panic.
"Ano, who exactly is it we will be 'battling'?" Kiku asked hesitantly.
"Spirits," Arthur replied. "It seems that something has corrupted the spirit of the victim of a recent car crash. It's apparently rampaging and destroying cars. It's up to you to stop it," he explained.
"Wait, spirit? You mean like, a ghost?" Alfred asked suspiciously.
"Um... Not exactly, but sort of, yes," Arthur replied awkwardly.
"Eek! That sounds really scary!" Feliciano exclaimed, immediately clinging to Ludwig. It was then that he realized that his normally impervious friend was shaking slightly, and paler than usual.
"Are you ok, Ludwig?" Feliciano asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," Ludwig replied quickly, though he didn't seem it. "Let's just go."
"Hurry up, there's no time to waste," Arthur announced, heading towards the car.
When they reached the scene several minutes later, there was chaos everywhere. The area was strewn with overturned cars, some of them torn to shreds. There were even a few police cars, though whatever they were attempting to do was quite obviously not effective. In the middle of the carnage was a large demon-like creature. It was a dark purple color, almost black, with soulless red eyes and long, wispy tentacles. It was transparent, with things seen through it being distorted. It was visible in that it WASN'T there, like a void that could only be seen by the distinct lack of stuff inside it.
"THAT'S what you call 'nothing too serious'?" Alfred demanded, giving Arthur a look.
"Alright, so perhaps I underestimated it a bit," Arthur admitted nervously. "Anyway, just go fight it. You've trained enough, haven't you?"
Rolling his eyes, Alfred ran off to fight the monster with the others.
"It looks really scary," Feliciano whispered.
"There is only one thing we can do," Kiku said seriously. "We have to defeat it, or die trying."
"But I don't want to die!" Feliciano shouted. Before Kiku could respond, the monster hurled a car at them. They both screamed.
"Uh... M-m-maple Guard!" Matthew shouted hesitantly, jumping in front of them and gripping his staff tightly. A force field appeared above them, just barely deflecting the car so it didn't hit them.
"Thank you," Kiku replied, running at the monster with his katana. He slashed at one of the tentacles, severing it from the body. The monster roared, a horrible piercing shriek that sounded like multiple pitches at once.
"Come on guys! We can totally pull this off!" Alfred shouted, shooting at the monster. The body of the monster seemed to squish like jello under the impact of the bullets, eventually absorbing them with seemingly no harm done.
"Hahaha, I take it back," Alfred laughed nervously, ducking behind a car.
Meanwhile, Feliciano ran around in panic, waving his white flag frantically. The monster grabbed him, wrapping a tentacle tightly around him and lifting him up off the ground. Feliciano screamed yet again.
"Leave him alone! Sakura Storm!" Kiku shouted, pointing his katana at the tentacle. A fierce wind came out of it, carrying cherry blossoms. It was strong enough to knock the tentacle away, causing Feli to go flying. He was quickly caught by Alfred.
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Feliciano shrieked as Alfred put him down.
"Where the hell is Lu- I mean Germany?" Alfred exclaimed annoyedly.
"I don't know, I don't see him anywhere," Matthew replied, smacking the monster repeatedly with his maple staff. The monster growled and picked up a car, intending to throw it at Matthew.
"Freedom Flame!" Alfred shouted, shooting a fireball at the monster. It dropped the car instantly, shrieking in pain.
"Do you ever wonder why all of our attacks are alliterative?" Kiku pondered.
"Dude I dunno what that means, but I really don't think it's important right now," Alfred replied, shooting the monster some more.
"Fair point," Kiku agreed.
The monster, meanwhile, had grabbed some wreckage from a destroyed car. The four got ready to dodge it, gripping their weapons tightly, only to find that the monster wasn't aiming for them at all. Confused, they turned around, just in time to see the monster attempt to attack a very scared-looking Ludwig.
"Dude, get out of the way!" Alfred shouted. Ludwig gave no sign of hearing him. He merely stood there, his ice blue eyes wide with fear, frozen in a position that looked more like a lost child than tough, serious, no-nonsense Ludwig Beilschmidt.
The others ran to help him, but it was too late. The monster swung the piece of car hard into Ludwig's side, knocking him over and leaving a large cut on his arm.
"No! Ludwig-san!" Kiku exclaimed, horrified.
"Damn it!" Alfred shouted. "You guys go make sure he's ok! Kiku, let's kill this thing!"
"Right!" Matthew nodded, running over to help Ludwig. Kiku and Alfred turned around to fight the monster, determined to finish it off once and for all. Feliciano, meanwhile, was standing in shock.
"Are you ok?" Matthew asked worriedly, helping Ludwig up. Ludwig shook his head silently, still looking rather upset, only this time he was also injured.
"What happened? Are you hurt?"
Ludwig said nothing. Instead, he simply sat down on the ground, trying not to cry. Matthew sighed and bit his lip, turning towards Feliciano.
"He's not responding to me... See if you can get through to him," Matthew explained. But Feliciano wasn't listening. He was staring at the monster, his hands balled into fists and an uncharacteristically angry expression on his face.
"...Italy? Are you ok?" Matthew asked hesitantly, glancing at him worriedly.
"You," Feliciano growled, looking directly at the monster, "Are a VERY! BAD! OCTOPUS!" he shrieked, charging at the monster. He ran incredibly fast, too fast for the monster to have time to react before he began beating it with his white flag.
"Ano, I don't think that is-" Before Kiku could finish, he was interrupted by the sound of the monster screaming as Feliciano hit it reapeatedly, fueled by outrage that the demon had dared to hurt his best friend.
"Woah," Alfred whispered, astonished. "Remind me not to get on his bad side..."
After a few more moments of this, the monster gave one final piercing shriek, and then exploded into a shower of sparkles.
"All done," Feliciano announced cheerfully, turning around and detransforming. All signs of the unstoppable rage from a few moments ago were gone, and he happily skipped over to his injured friend. The others shared a nervous glance, and then cautiously followed Feliciano.
"Poor Ludwig! You're bleeding! That's not good!" Feliciano exclaimed, hugging Ludwig.
"...I'm sorry," Ludwig mumbled weakly. His cheeks were stained with tears, and wow that is an overly dramatic sentence. Such sad wow. Much drama. Very feels. Teer.
"It's ok! Don't cry!" Feliciano insisted. "You didn't do anything wrong, promise!"
"Uh, hey guys? I'm not a doctor or anything, but this doesn't look good," Alfred interrupted, a sense of dread in his voice. "We should probably like, take him to a hospital or something."
"I'm fine," Ludwig insisted, though he clearly wasn't. "I just... need to go home..."
"Al's right," Matthew said. "You need to go to the hospital."
"I agree," Kiku added, nodding seriously.
"No... I-I'm fine..." Ludwig replied quietly, seemingly close to passing out.
"You are not fine," Kiku argued.
"Look, this is getting nowhere fast," Alfred observed. "Like it or not, we're going to the hospital." With that, he effortlessly picked Ludwig up and carried him off to the car. Ludwig was too weak to resist, a distant, clouded look in his blue eyes.
They quickly arrived at the car, where Arthur and Francis were trying to clear away some wreckage that had landed on top of it.
"Is everyone alright? Did you destroy it?" Arthur asked, waving to them.
"Yes, but Ludwig-san is hurt," Kiku replied. "We need to get to the hospital."
"That's no good," Francis stated.
"Put him in the car," Arthur told them, "But be gentle."
Alfred obeyed, carefully putting Ludwig down in the back seat. Feliciano immediately sat next to him, watching him worriedly. Meanwhile, Arthur got in the driver's seat while Francis sat next to him, and Kiku, Alfred, and Matthew squeezed into the middle bench. As soon as everyone was ready, Arthur began driving, taking them to the hospital as fast as possible.