Hi peoples! And welcome to chapter 6 of "Strength"!!! This chapter gave me quite a bit of trouble, but I'm still really excited about it!
NinthFeather: Why?
Me: Why did it give me trouble or why am I excited about it?
NinthFeather: Neither. I mean why haven't you let me go yet???
Me: *sigh* Feather-chan, can't you at least pretend to be excited about the fanfic?
NinthFeather: When you hold me here against my will, you lose the right to comment about my attitude.
Me: *whines* But Feather-chan...
NinthFeather: And stop calling me Feather-chan! Or so help me, I will put in you in my Tsubasa character interaction, and you WILL lose a fight with Kurogane!!
Me: *perks up* Oh, that reminds me! I did make a guest appearance in the character interaction of chapter 7 of Feather-chan's Tsubasa RC fanfic "Sealed Wings". So if you want to read an excellent Tsubasa fanfic, or you just want to see me kick Kurogane's butt, please check it out!!
NinthFeather: You know, you're also in chapter 8 as well.
Me: Yeah, I know, but I don't want them to read that one!
NinthFeather: Why?
Me: Because I got rejected by Fai!! For a guy!!
NinthFeather: *smirks* Yeah, an old fat guy, at that.
Me: TT_TT You're not helping me here, Feather-chan.
NinthFeather: Not trying to.
Me: You're so mean!! What did I ever do to you?
NinthFeather:...Do you really need me to answer that question?
Me:...No, I guess I don't. Anyway, on with the fic!!!
Warning: Well, there's not a whole lot of bishie x bishie romance in this chapter, but there is a bit of violence, so no like, no read
NinthFeather: Wow, I didn't know it was possible for you to write a chapter that didn't have any Shounen-ai fluff.
Me:...You've never read my first Saint Beast fanfic, have you?
Disclaimer:...
NinthFeather: *sigh* I guess I have to do this again. KuroNekoShoujo does not own Saint Beast or any of the characters within. *mutters under breath* Even though she's too childish to admit it herself...
Me: Hey! I heard that!
NinthFeather: Good.
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When Ruka and Rei finally arrived in the courtyard, everyone else was already nearly finished with their meal. Never the less, the two angels sat down to eat and chat with the others.
Rei did his best to ignore the knowing smirks Gai kept aiming in his direction, but despite his best efforts, his face was still a light shade of pink within a few minutes.
Shin noticed Rei flushed face and looked over at him, concerned. "Rei, are you alright? Your face seems a bit flushed. You don't have a fever do you?"
Gai snickered and Rei's blush deepened. He kept his gaze fixed down at the table, refusing to look at any of his fellow Saint Beasts. "N-No, Shin. I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
Shin looked unconvinced, but, sensing Rei's discomfort, let the subject drop. Ruka, also sensing his angel's discomfort and, unlike Shin, knowing the reason behind it, suppressed an amused smile and draped a comforting arm around Rei's slim shoulders. Rei, despite knowing that this would probably only worsen Gai's taunting, could not help but relax into the feeling of security and love the gesture brought.
Sure enough, Gai immediately opened his mouth to make some comment that Rei was sure would turn him completely red, but thankfully, Gou took pity on the feminine angel and started speaking with Gai about that afternoon's training session, effectively distracting the cat-like angel.
When they had all finished with their meal, the six Saint Beasts left for their usual training area in a valley just outside the grounds of Heaven's Palace. It was the perfect area for all of them to train, because not only was it isolated by the high, rocky walls that surrounded three sides of the valley, it had many different kinds of terrain. Half of the valley was made up of dense forest, while the other was rocky, uneven cliff faces. A large river also ran right through the center of the valley. In other words, it was the perfect training spot.
Soon after they arrived, the Saint Beasts paired off and began sparring. Gou with Gai, Yuda with Shin, and Ruka with Rei. Yuda and Shin mainly worked in the wooded area of the valley, as they wished to practice evading attacks without having a good visual on their opponent. Gai and Gou worked mainly in the rocky cliff area, because Gai was trying to learn to better control his Earth powers. And Ruka and Rei were sparring in the air, as their wings were their greatest asset, and they needed to be able to use them to the best of their abilities in combat.
Rei sighed as he and Ruka took off into the air. He had not been looking forward to this training session. It was not that he didn't want to train and spar with the other Saint Beasts. Quite the opposite, in fact, the delicate looking angel always looked forward to these training sessions. But that was before what happened with Stheno. Now, every time they sparred together, Rei could sense that Ruka was holding back, like he was afraid of hurting him, and it aggravated the delicate angel to no end.
And what angered Rei even more was that, when he had broached the subject with Ruka, thinking it might just have been his imagination, the silver-haired angel hadn't even bothered to deny it! On the contrary, he had flat told Rei that, yes, he had been holding back, but he was doing it for fear of hurting the smaller angel.
"Rei, what happened with Stheno affected you. Sometimes you freeze up, or lose your focus. If that were to happen when we were sparring, you could be seriously hurt," Ruka had said calmly.
"But Ruka," Rei had pleaded, trying to reason with him, "That's exactly why it's important that you don't hold back during training! I need to learn to cope with this without letting it have an effect on my performance as a Saint Beast. If I can't learn to retain my focus during our sparring sessions, what will happen when we're actually on a mission and I'm forced to fight? Wouldn't it be better to risk injury with you than to risk death with demons?"
But no matter how much Rei argued and pleaded with him, Ruka still wouldn't relent. Rei sighed again as he and Ruka leveled out their ascent mid-way up the valley wall, preparing to spar. Really, even though Rei loved Ruka with his whole heart and soul, and most of the time Rei was incredibly grateful for Ruka's fierce protectiveness towards him, there were times, like now, when the effeminate angel found his lover's stubbornness to be indescribably frustrating.
And so their sparring session commenced. Even though Rei was loathe to admit it, he had to say that, even though he could tell Ruka was still holding back, he still had a difficult time countering his partner's attacks. Not that I'll ever tell him that, Rei thought, grimacing at the very notion, as he dodged a blow aimed at his ribs.
Yet, where as Ruka relied mostly on strength and power in a fight, Rei, due in large part to his small stature, relied on speed and agility as his main weapon. Really, it was only when Ruka caught Rei off guard that he had any chance of landing a blow on the smaller angel, but, as Ruka had pointed out, that had been happening more and more often since what happened with Stheno.
They had only been sparring for about an hour when the two angels heard shouting coming from the ground. Looking down, they saw Gou gesturing at them, looking almost panicked, shouting something they couldn't make out from their altitude. Yuda and Shin had also left the forested area where they had been training and were sprinting towards where Gou stood, similarly stricken expressions on their faces.
Rei and Ruka were both equally confused as to what had their friends so anxious. Ruka started to fly lower, trying to make out what Gou was shouting, while Rei flew up higher and scanned the ground, attempting to pinpoint exactly what it was that had his comrades so panicked.
And then he saw it.
The source of the panic came in the form of a small, blonde angel. Apparently, in sparring with Gou, Gai had opened up a fissure in the ground, using his Earth powers. However, what the cat-like angel had not anticipated was that, once opened, the crack would not stop. It had continued even when it reached the valley wall, branching off into several other, smaller cracks as it ascended the side. Because of this, a large part of the high cliff face was beginning to collapse.
Thankfully, both Gou and Gai, as well as Yuda and Shin, were at a safe enough distance from the cliff side that they were not in any peril, and Rei was enough to have been clear of any danger.
But Ruka was not.
Rei felt his entire being grow cold with terror at this realization. Without even pausing to consider his next course of action, Rei dove down towards his silver-haired angel with every ounce of speed he had in him.
It didn't feel like enough. Rei felt like he was moving in slow motion. He could hear the cliff face collapsing behind him. He saw Ruka turn towards him, his beautiful face morphing into a look of surprise and horror. Using every bit of strength he had in his small body, Rei slammed himself into Ruka, knocking the other to the ground beside Yuda, and out of harms way.
Rei barely had time to feel relieved before he felt a large, heavy boulder slam against his back, sending so much mind-numbing pain through his body that it stole his breath away. This was followed almost instantly by another boulder crashing down on to his right wing, causing it to crumple against his body and sending him free-falling towards the ground.
Horrible, burning pain seared through every nerve in Rei's body as he hit the ground. He vaguely aware that more boulders were crashing to the ground around him, but he was too far gone to care. Just before he completely slipped away, though, Rei became dimly aware of a voice screaming his name. It took his pain muddled brain a few seconds to register that it was Ruka. Rei smiled to himself. If Ruka was screaming his name, that meant that he was alright. That he was alive. This was Rei's last coherent thought before another, smaller boulder crashed against his forehead, sending so much blinding pain through his skull that the beautiful, bloodied angel gratefully slipped into unconsciousness.
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It's the return of the sadistic cliffhanger!!! YAY!!!
NinthFeather: What do you mean "yay"? You're torturing your readers!
Me: Yep! ^-^
NinthFeather:...You really are evil, aren't you?
Me: Please tell me you're not just realizing this now.
NinthFeather: -.-' Just go beg for your reviews.
Me: REVIEW!!! I am a review junkie with yakuza connections, and you do not want to see what happens when a yakuza with access to sharp objects goes through withdraw!! So it's in your best interest to review!!! REVIEW!!!
NinthFeather:...The scary thing is that I pretty sure she's serious.
Me: ^-^ Anyway, I'm hoping to have the next chapter out by Sunday, but don't hold me to that. Me and deadlines don't really mix.
NinthFeather: No, you just purposefully ignore them.
Me: Exactly.
NinthFeather:...I give up.
Me: Why did you even try in the first place?
NinthFeather:...
Until next time, my lovelies!!
~Neko-chan~