Quatra and Kyoya are just finishing up with the patch jobs of Leiko and the purple haired girl known as Yuri as the train arrives in Magnolia an hour ahead of schedule. Quatra decides to wake up both girls by shaking them.
"Tch, Wake up idiots." Quatra growls at the two girls. "We're here"
"What's wrong with you?" Leiko asks as she wipes her eyes. "Your grumpier than usual" she says earning a murderous glare from Quatra.
"Don't start" Kyoya says to Quatra looking equally agitated as he places his sword on his back and begins to walk off the train. Quatra just turns and follows his brother.
"What are you gonna do now?" Leiko asks Yuri now that they are alone "Because you could always come with us?"
"Huh?" Yuri asks with an eyebrow raised.
"Well as I'm sure you have noticed you are free. And it was you who said the only way to get out of those dreams was for him to be killed. So I was thinking that you could go back with us to the guild after this?" Leiko says while crossing her arms with her smirk.
Yuri begins to consider the offer. "This would be the chance to make friends and live a normal life." she thinks but was careful to make sure that her face didn't reveal the hope that the thought gave her. "No more following some old bastards orders, no getting punished for disobedience, I'll do what I want when I want."
"Come on Yuri" Leiko says as she gets off the train. Yuri runs off the train and catches up to Leiko on the platform.
" Fine I'll come." Yuri says as she walks next to Leiko. "I have nothing better to do."
Leiko and Yuri eventually catch up to the boys who decided that they were going to a hotel. Leiko was against the plan because she said that she was hungry. In the end Leiko and Yuri went to the local diner while Quatra and Kyoya went into the hotel across the street.
"Why are you guys in Magnolia?" Yuri asked as the girls each take a seat in booths.
"Well the reason we are on this trip is to kill the man that hired you." Leiko responds. "The only train that runs to the Pergrande kingdom from Fiore runs from Magnolia."
"But that train doesn't leave until 9:00 tonight." Yuri says with an eyebrow raised. " It's 5:30 in the morning. What exactly do you plan to do for the next 16 hours?"
"Well after I eat I'm going to curl up in the bed with grumpy and sleep until he wakes me up." Leiko says while yawning. The waitress then makes her way over to the table and takes the orders. After the orders are taken the girls begin to talk again.
"When you say grumpy, you mean Quatra right?" Yuri asks with a sly grin as she drinks from her cup. "Hell I wouldn't peg you as the type that goes for that aloof, standoffish, and arrogant type of guy, hell or any type of guy for that matter. I honestly thought you were gay." she finished saying earning a kick under the table from Leiko.
"Sorry my foot slipped." Leiko say with a playfully innocent smile on her face. "Anyway Quatra's honestly not that bad. He may not look it but he is very nice guy...sometimes... I mean I'll give you an example." Leiko then goes on to explain her drunken disaster and how he was there for her the entire time.
"Three beers? You are such a lightweight." Yuri says while laughing earning another kick from Leiko. Yuri stops laughing and gives Leiko a death glare. "Let me guess. Foot slipped again."
"Nope that time I did it cause I felt like it." Leiko says with a glare to return Yuri's. This time Yuri kicks her back which starts a who can kick harder contest. The waitress comes back with food causing Leiko and Yuri to scowl at each as they begin eating.
"Anyway" Yuri says trying to get back on the subject. "How long have you guys known each other?"
"About two and a half years actually." Leiko says while contemplating the answer. "When Quatra joined the guild he was always the quiet guy who sat in the library reading when he wasn't on a mission, which wasn't very often because he was always gone. For some strange reason my friend, Nalien, thought it was a good idea to introduce himself by playing a prank on Quatra. He even managed to get another friend, Quezt, into the act..."
"Oh come on, this is perfect." 15 year old Nalien said to 14 year old Misha and 15 year old Leiko as the sat at a table in the main hall of the guild. "I got everything planned out. Quezt is gonna distract the new guy and while that happens I'll slip the stuff in his tea, then when he drinks it he'll fall asleep and when that happens we undress him and set him outside for all to see. Then when he wakes up he finds the four of us holding the clothes and his sword and that's when we introduce ourselves."
"You know what, I like it." Says Leiko as she gets up from the chair she was sitting in. "Lets do it. Besides, this could be hilarious." Leiko says as she looks at Nalien then to Misha.
"I don't think this is a good idea" Misha says, showing concern on her face instead of her happy go lucky smile.
"You worry too much" Nalien says as he walks over to Quezt to tell him the plan.
Meanwhile 16 year old Quatra was sitting on the other side of the hall, drinking his tea while looking down at his next job. "Decent payout but maybe I should get in touch with Kyoya and take a job with him. It would pay more but... I think I'm gonna stop that for a while." He thinks as he sips his tea. He then looks behind him as he sees one of the guild members walk towards him.
"Hey new guy" the man with onyx eyes says as he approaches Quatra.
"Can I help you?" Quatra says with a stoic expression as he turns all the way around on the bench to face the man.
"Yeah actually..." the man says as he stops in front of him. His eyes tell Quatra that something is going on. "I just wanted to introduce myself. The name is Quezt Ryutatsu."
"Well I guess the right thing would be to introduce myself as well" Quatra thinks as he looks at Quezt. "Quatra Mikazuchi." He says kind of bored as he starts to turn around.
"So do you like Lions Mane so far?" Quezt asks rather uncaring which Quatra picks up on.
"Do you honestly care?" Quatra asks with an eyebrow raised. Quezt realizing that he should put more effort into his distraction.
"Of course, I just wanna know if there is anything that I can help with. I am S Class after all." Quezt say applying a fake smile.
"You're awfully proud of that S class title aren't you?"
"Of course!"
Quatra shakes his head as he stands up and looks at Quezt. "It's fine to be proud of an accomplishment but I can already see the difference between you and me."
"And what would that be" Quezt says with a laugh but stops as Quatra's eyes stare right into his own.
"I don't need a title to prove that I'm better than most of the trash that walks around here." Quatra says. Quatra then turns around back toward his table. "and what did you put in my drink?" he says as he looks at a boy with no shirt and a girl with a black jacket walking away from the table. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice you two walk up behind me and put something in my tea."
Leiko and Nalien turn to look at Quatra but are taken back by the look of distrust on his face.
"Who are you and what did you put in the tea?" Quatra asks again in a dangerous tone as he draws his sword. Leiko out of instinct gets out her sword as well.
"Whoa whoa whoa." Nalien says trying to diffuse the situation. "Relax man, my name is Nalien, the girl here is Leiko and you have already met Quezt. The stuff I put into your tea was just something to put you to sleep..."
"Why are you trying to put me to sleep?" Quatra asks the tone unchanged.
"It was just a joke man" Nalien explained "We thought it would be a funny way to introduce ourselves."
"By poisoning me?" Quatra asks as he walks closer to Nalien but his eyes are locked on Leiko who is standing at the ready with her sword. "Little girls shouldn't play with swords Miss Leiko."
"What did you say?" Leiko responds while yelling. "I gonna kick your ass you arrogant bastard." she says as she charges at Quatra. She swings the blade and gets blocked by Quatra effortlessly. Another swing, another block. Things kept on at this pace until Quatra sheathes his sword and just keeps dodging the blade still without effort. Leiko drops her blade and starts swinging with her fist. Quatra continues to dodge until he catches one of her fist in his hand. Leiko then grabs the wrist of the hand he used to block then swings her other fist connecting with Quatra's jaw causing him to step back.
"Are you satisfied?" Quatra asks as he turns his head back around shocking Leiko. "If this continues I will take this as a challenge."
Leiko steps back as she stares at Quatra. "And what would happen if you took this as a challenge?"
"Simple, I'll kill you." Quatra says in a calm tone as he draws his sword again.
"Leiko, I think that you should stop." Nalien says as he walks up to her. Leiko, being Leiko, decides to fight.
"Nalien stay back" Leiko says as she goes to pick up her sword. "If any of you interfere I'll never forgive you." She shouts to her guildmates.
"Leiko, be reasonable." Misha says but it falls upon deaf ears as Leiko picks up her sword and looks at Quatra.
"Before we do this, I wanna know your name." Leiko asks with her sword at the ready as she stares down the brown haired mage in front of her.
"Quatra"
"Quatra huh, rather girly name." Leiko says with a smirk.
"I wouldn't talk tomboy" Quatra say returning the smirk.
"And damn proud of it now lets go." Leiko says as she charges at Quatra. Leiko starts off by summoning a skeleton to distract him. The skeleton swings at Quatra only to miss and get cut cleanly through by Quatra's blade. Quatra then faster than most could keep up with shows up behind Leiko. Leiko swings the sword behind her which gets blocked by Quatra. As the swords are clashed Leiko notices something twirling in Quatra's free hand. Before Quatra can continue Master Crowne has come down from his room and walks right over to Quatra.
"Having fun?" Crowne asks Quatra.
"Tch" Quatra utters as he turns towards his table and grabs his job. "I'm takin this one Vaurol."
"Alright then" Vaurol Crowne says as he waves at Quatra as he walks out the door. "It seems my tool has taken a liking to you, Ms Archon." he says as he turns to face Leiko.
"huh, your tool?" Leiko asked confused. "And what do you mean taken a liking to me? He just tried to kill me."
"If he wanted you dead, you would be dead." Crowne states as he walks over to her. "If you don't believe me I'll explain why he was holding a marker. Go look at your neck in the mirror."
Leiko walks over into the kitchen are and looks at her neck in the mirror and notices a red line going across it.
"What the hell!" She screams as she walks out a pissed off look on her face. "Prick drew a red line on my neck, How did I not notice that!"
"What happened to start this fight?" Crowne asked Misha who had watched the whole thing.
"Well it all started with Nalien..."
"Nalien, I should have known." Crowne says with a sigh. He looks around and Nalien is no where in sight. "Leiko, Misha go get that idiot and tell him I want to see him. My guess is he went and followed Quatra."
"Yes master"
When they both left they hang a left and go in the same direction as Quatra. As soon as they start walking they run into Nalien who is hunched behind a trashcan.
"What the hell.." Leiko started as she was silenced by Nalien's hand as it covered her mouth in an attempt to keep her quiet.
"Quiet he'll hear you." Nalien says as he lets go of Leiko. Leiko follows up with a kick to his midsection that sends him into the wall next to him.
"What did I tell you about touching me." Leiko screams getting everybody's attention, including Quatra's.
"So so stupid" Quatra thinks to himself with a smirk as he finds himself walking towards the arguing friends. When he gets there he continues to listen to the argument without them noticing.
"Why is following him a good idea?" Leiko asks Nalien
"After the ass kicking you took I figured you would be the first person that wanted to find out more about him."
"Um...guys" Misha says but is not heard by either one of the arguing mages.
"I did not take an ass kicking, the bastard cheated."
"Guys" Misha says with a sigh. Still no luck.
"Sorry to say this Leiko but..." Nalien says with his eyebrow raised. "it looked like he was holding back and he still beat you without putting a hand on you."
"Arrggh fine lets do it" Leiko agrees reluctantly. "What's the plan?"
"GUYS!"
"Yes Misha!" Both Nalien and Leiko yell.
"Quatra has been listening to the entire conversation and is on the other side of the dumpster right now." Misha says calmly, agitating both of her friends until they hear a voice.
"you discovered me, I guess it's time to kill you" Quatra says as he shows himself uncharacteristically with a smirk. "But seriously don't follow me" he says as he walks away, He then stops after three steps. "One more thing, the three of you can have the mission I picked. I thought of a side job that pays more." he then continues to walk towards the station.
"Is it an Assassination job?" Misha asks with an eyebrow raised.
"Who are you?" Quatra asks with an eyebrow raised as he turns to look at the youngest of the group.
"My name is Misha and I know all about your past seeing as the file keeper is my best friend." she says with a smile.
"Well maybe it is. What's it to you?" Quatra asks a little annoyed.
"You have joined an official guild now." Misha explains to the samurai. "You no longer have to do missions like that."
"Misha what's going on?" Leiko asks finally joining the conversation. Before Misha could explain Quatra spoke.
"Allow me to make a few things clear. My past is none of your business, what I do with my time is none of your business. You can follow me around and try to figure me out, but if you can't keep up it's your funeral, Got it?" he finishes as he turns to walk away. Everyone sat speechless at what the older boy just said.
"I'm gonna go with him." Leiko says shocking everyone including Quatra, who had turned back around to look at her. "You said that I could follow right? Well I'm gonna take you up on that offer."
"If you're doing this to piss me off then I must say you are doing a very good job" Quatra says with a sigh as he holds his head with his hand.
"What happened next?" Yuri asks casually as she and Leiko finish up their meal.
"Can't tell you" Leiko says as she puts the money on the table. Yuri decides not to pry any further. The waitress comes back and collects the bill. As she leaves the table Leiko and Yuri start walking back to the hotel room. When they arrive back in the hotel Leiko goes into her room and finds it empty. She then goes into Kyoya and Yuri's room and finds Quatra and Kyoya talking in the room and Yuri on her way to the bathroom.
"Quatra you coming to bed?" Leiko asks as she yawns while leaning on the door.
"Yeah in a little bit" Quatra says without looking at her. Leiko, slightly disappointed, turns to leave when Yuri pops up next to her.
"I'll lay down with you." Yuri says in a playful but seductive voice "But I hope you don't mind not getting any sleep" She says while wrapping her arms around her waist from behind. Yuri then places her chin on Leiko's shoulder causing Leiko's to stomp on her foot.
"Yuri" Leiko shouts while turning to face the purple haired girl.
"What?"
"What the..." Leiko starts but is interrupted by Quatra.
"Leiko, Yuri can you take this somewhere else please?" Quatra shouts causing Leiko to yell back.
"Alright Quatra what the fuck is wrong with you this morning?" Leiko says while walking closer to the samurai. " You have literally been king ass this morning so if there is something bothering you come out and say it." She finishes as she is inches away from Quatra.
"you wanna know what's wrong?" Quatra yells shocking everyone in the room with a showing of extreme emotion, except Yuri who doesn't know Quatra. "Fine. I have not gotten any sleep because someone's old master gave me the nightmare of all nightmares. Also, apparently while I was asleep and unable to do a thing about shit you were in a fight that quite frankly you were lucky to come out of alive. I also have to just accept the person that tried to take your live as a new member just because you said so. And speaking of the women with the 2 million jewel bounty on her head, do you realize how hard it is to protect you when you don't take this shit seriously. You don't really pay any attention to your surroundings. You treat this like it's a fuckin game when it's not. Leiko, you can die but you fail to realize this and you treat this like a normal mission. That is what's wrong." Quatra finishes and walks right by Leiko who looked close to tears as he finds the door and leaves the room.
"Leiko are you..." Yuri asks but is cut off by Kyoya.
"Leave her alone." Kyoya says as he holds his arm up to stop her. "unfortunately I don't agree with the way he said it but it was something she needed to hear." He then drags Yuri out of the room to leave Leiko alone with her thoughts.
"Where are you going Kyoya?" Yuri asks as he walks through the lobby.
"Stay in the hotel, I'm gonna go find Quatra." Kyoya says while walking outside. Kyoya eventually found his brother surrounded by people trying to rob him. Kyoya stops and leans against the wall a good distance away with a quiet smirk. "Bad fuckin move."
Meanwhile, a little down the road, the robbers are trying to intimidate Quatra. Quatra just stands there head facing the ground and anger building up. Then a smirk finds it's way onto his face. "Stress relief" he says quietly. One of the robbers picks up on this and decides to open his mouth.
"What do you mean stress relief?" The robber asks slowly bringing his knife in closer.
"Well it's simple really" Quatra says as he breaks into a full blown evil laugh. "You can't fuck with me. So now, Do the five of you have any last words?" he says as he looks at each robber while drawing his sword.
The robbers become scared and start to back away. Too bad the leader of the group decides to try his luck with the pissed off samurai only to get beheaded so fast no one saw what happened. The other four decide to run but Quatra kills three of the remaining four with ease then slowly walks after the last one. As he walks after the last one he makes the gravity heavier around the robber causing him to fall to his hands and knees.
"On your knees dog" he says quietly with a laugh while the robber is stuck on the ground. He catches up to the robber and gets down on a knee too. "See I told you that you couldn't fuck with me." he says rather coldly as he increases the gravity around the robber until he was flat as a pancake and his head exploded from the pressure. As Quatra turns around he notices three people with three very different looks.
First he saw his brother with an indifferent look on his face because he knew the whole situation. He then saw Yuri, who had seen the majority of the situation, with a look of admiration on her face. Then there was Leiko, who had only seen the last act of cruelty, With a look of fear and disgust with a little bit of hatred. Quatra looks at each person and turns to walk away.
"Quatra!" Leiko yells to get his attention but to no avail as he continues to walk away. "God dammit Quatra I'm talking to you."
"What!" Quatra yells back at her when he stops to look at her. "What is it that you want?"
"I wanna know what he did to deserve to die. Can you answer that?" Leiko says matching glares with Quatra.
"I'm kind of curious about that myself?" Yuri says as she stares at the body of the robber.
"Stay out of this!" Both Quatra and Leiko yell causing Yuri to remain silent. Leiko presses her question again.
"I'm waiting for an answer, Quatra."
"I killed him and the rest of his group simply because they were trash and I was having a bad morning." Quatra said still glaring daggers at Leiko. When she heard his answer she immediately ran at him and hits him in the face with a closed fist.
"I thought that you had changed!" Leiko yells causing Quatra to soften his glare at the obviously angry women in front of him. "I thought that you weren't a killer anymore but I guess I was wrong about that." She says now tears of anger starting to flow. Quatra noticing the tears tried to hug her.
"Don't fuckin touch me you fuckin Demon." Leiko yells causing Quatra to back away with a hurt look on his face.
"Demon?" Quatra thinks to himself triggering flashbacks to his childhood.
"Don't go near him he is the reincarnation of that demented serial killer"
"That demon child, someone should kill it so it doesn't grow up to kill us all."
"Demon Child, Demon Child in the tree
why are you always watching me
Mikazuchi, Mikazuchi
It all ends when the beatings stop
no matter how much you beg or plead
we won't stop till from that tree you drop."
"Tch" Quatra utters as he turns away from Leiko and starts to walk away.
"Where the hell are you going?" Leiko asks still irritated.
"Anywhere but here. I refused to be judged by somebody's science experiment gone wrong." Quatra says coldly as he continues to walk away.