This was a toughie to write!
But here you go! Thanks to all reviewers: you guys make my day!
What did I just [allude] REVEAL?! game:
THE EPIC CONCLUSION (not really haha)
Series: YES, they are COUSINS! How exciting. whoot whoot
DISCLAIMER: Sorachi Hideaki is boss, because they aren't really cousins in canon hahaha ...because Zenshi's not canon. *crai forevah*
blooper:I accidentally closed this tab and had to redo the entire thing...
Eyes of Wolves
- 41 -
.: THIRTEEN YEARS AGO :.
It's not uncommon for his father to delve into the more, let's say, obscure corners of the political realm. The looming ship that is the massive leading vessel of the Chidori daunts Linter not a bit, and it's not because the man's brother-in-law stands before the steering wheel.
They pass dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, the reeking cells threatening to pull Zenshi's lunch from his stomach. The stench of human decay and misery and waste, merely a few yards away.
He is sent to — or rather, sentenced — to a day in a simple office, where most of his time is spent playing cards with a few meager desk employees and a little brunette who snacks on strangely colored carrots and misshapen rice balls. Zenshi's surprised his father has not let him in on the negotiations, but brushes it off because he's relieved. He'd choose playing Uno with his cousin and a few bizarre purple-skinned Amanto over suffocating under his father's oppressive leash any day.
"How old are you?" he asks, curious.
"Eleven," she says. "What about you?"
"Fourteen," he replies. But that's not her true intention, because the younger girl simply looks hungry. It should be obvious — blue and green carrots accompanying dry rice balls did not seem to quiet the rumbling of their stomachs.
There's a calendar on the wall; it's almost Lunar New Year.
"We brought some on Dad's private ship, but we'd have to sneak across the terminal to get it." He's referring to the new year cake, made of the finest sticky rice in the universe and red beans of the highest quality.
"I know a shortcut," she replies, beneath her breath. The assistants working in the office have lost interest in their Uno game, and the two are stacking houses of cards in their boredom. "These guys won't say anything if I tell them not to."
Zenshi is skeptical, but consents. He, too, is hungry, and the Yato are infamous suckers for new year cake.
The connecting bridge between the main Chidori ship and Linter's traveling spacecraft is on deck four, near a central loading terminal. Mutsu very casually dons her jacket, which is a tad big for her, and leads him down the way.
"When we get on your ship, it's your show," she tells him needlessly.
"There won't be a show," he says, under his breath, "because there won't be an audience."
.: AUGUST, PRESENT :.
Mutsu practically stuffed the glowing green capsules down her captain's throat, and as he somehow gargled the antidote down, she pushed her gun into Gin's hands and pointed towards Kagura and Shinpachi. With the antitoxin in their hands, Gin and Zenshi dove for the next set of overturned couches, sliding headfirst into the redheaded Yato girl and her bespectacled partner.
"Gin-chan," Kagura blubbered, her arms wrapped around Shinpachi's shoulders. She was unusually distressed, but they discovered that her hopelessness was a side-effect of the poison — she, too, had been shot.
"I'll give them the antidote, you go for the pirates," Gin said hurriedly, distributing the green pills. "I'll finish up here."
"I'm coming with," Kagura exclaimed, determined now that she knew no one would be dying anytime soon.
"Stay," Zenshi told her firmly, blocking her way when she attempted to rise. "Trust me."
He had made a promise, one day, though he couldn't remember when or where. Or had he? He couldn't recall. But the obligation was present, and he wouldn't fail.
Zenshi leapt over the tables.
.: SIX YEARS AGO :.
Very early in their careers as with the Harusame, the younger generation of new recruits had proved to be a group of very powerful Yato with endless potential.
And they are.
At some the point, the older crewmen learn that they aren't to meddle with the "youngsters", lest they risk their lives in a squabble. For one, their lieutenant is the embodiment of intimidation, and that is with his eyes alone. The scrawny boys who boarded their first day are now scarred warriors, with broad shoulders and brazen personalities. The women are dynamic, some vicious, some cunning, and some both. There are kind souls here and there, but one mustn't forget the Yato blood that sears through their arms and legs like fire.
Zenshi, who climbs the ranks with the hand of the higher-ups, finds the ill-will and jealousy are domineering forces even within one ship, one fleet. Some of the slightly older men try to enervate him from his new status; they fail.
The one day his father's genes reveal themselves in full dress is the day the crew truly learns that their young lieutenant is force to reckon with.
It begins with a taunt, a decry. The man, perhaps twenty-five or so, calls Zenshi a puppet, a sham, a fake. The dark-haired Yato, the target, typically refrains from effusive displays of emotion, but he never takes well to insult. In fact, after tolerating a couple months of similar incidents, Zenshi has a lack of appropriate decorum and manners left in him.
At least, for the time being.
The accusation sprouts from a man of slickly dyed blond hair and an oily face. Within the crowd at the galley, it's hard to separate one from another, but Zenshi is keen enough to estimate. At this point, many have come to believe that he's attained a sixth sense: he has powers of perception unlike any other.
Zenshi stands, causing Mei to look up at him warily. She studies the way he slowly sweeps the crowd, and a smirk flashes across her lips because she knows.
A crewman of lower rank would never dare, Zenshi knows. He himself is number three after Kamui and Abuto, therefore he must take a chance and call out a rank similar to his own, but just below. Many of the Yato present believe that he recognized exactly who it was that disrespected him, but next to Zenshi, Mei and Tabs know better.
Zenshi simply guessed.
"Chief Warrant Officer," he calls in an authoritative, booming voice. Mei has to restrain giggles because Zenshi is usually the "inside voice" man. "Stand."
There are two men of that rank currently in the galley — one is sitting a few seats to the right of Tabs, and the other is across the room, where the shouts came from.
The blond is thoroughly terrified, though he stands with mock innocence woven across his unattractive features.
"Sir."
"Would you like to repeat what you said just now?" Zenshi slips out from his seat and saunters down the aisles and aisles of tables, commanding silence throughout the entire lower cafeteria.
"Pardon me, sir?" The meager sir at the end is forced, and the mendacious twitch to the officer's lips draws a cruel glare from Zenshi. "I don't believe I—"
"Maybe I was too polite, Officer." Zenshi stands at the opposite end of the man's table. "Repeat what you just said, Chief Warrant Officer."
He makes a deal out of pronouncing every word like the next syllable will cost the perpetrator's life, and while it's got Mei on the verge of hysterical tears, the rest of the crew is dead silent.
That's an order, Zenshi's hard stare commands, inundating the man with sheer presence. Or are you a coward? More of a coward than you say I am?
It's not enough to goad the truth out the man, not yet.
"I don't believe I said anything prior to being addressed, sir."
Obviously it's a lie, because the several men and sparse setting of women around him look away, hearts pounding in their chests. Yato are capable of feeling fear, but it's only in the presence of superiors like this. There are the few, like Kamui, that throw fear out the window and destroy emotions like dust beneath their soles, but these pirates are conditioned to something along the lines of subservience to their captains.
So Zenshi turns his back because he knows this will draw out the malice in the man.
As soon as the dark-haired Yato isn't facing the blond, the officer breaks out into a horrible, pompous grin. Within the same millisecond, the slight turn of Zenshi's head towards Mei is clear. She reads his nuances like a book and stands.
The girl hops over Tabs's meal and before the cruelly laughing officer can finish his smile, she has drawn her umbrella and shot him in the arm.
The man crumples over his bench, and Zenshi's raised hand keeps everyone in their seats. He never even had to touch the man.
.: AUGUST, PRESENT :.
Zenshi was never a cruel leader — in fact, most of the Harusame crew found him to be a kind soul, just a quiet one. But they never forgot that he was strong.
Flying across the cabaret club undisguised, the Zenshi that was once hidden beneath a cloak burst onto the scene with unmatched aggression. One of the shooters lurched backward in shock — ironically, it was the oily blond man who was demoted shortly after his obstreperous show of insubordination six years ago — and failed to issue the necessary shots. His companions grabbed him, yelling gruffly until they realized had broken through their frontal line.
"There's only five of you?" Zenshi asked, hardly audible past the gunfire. "How surprising. Did someone die?"
"There's six of—"
"No, there's five." Zenshi was never sorry to see that grimy, gruesome man go.
"L-Lieutenant," one of them stuttered, never really expecting him to recover after suffering a poisoned bullet to the shoulder.
"Isn't it your birthday?" Zenshi was making things up now, finding that antidotes of any kind make him rather talkative, but he didn't necessarily care. Number two.
"Hey, hey, don't take all the glory yourself," said Gin, flying onto the scene with bold colors and bloody sleeves. "I'm here, too."
Gin fended off a tall, muscular woman and knocked her unconscious. When his back was turned, Zenshi scooped the crewwoman into his arms and quietly asphyxiated her with a couch cushion. Had he let them jail the Yato, more people would have died. In fact, there was no way an Earthling jail could contain a Yato, for even with Amanto technology and reinforced structures, even Tabs knew how to break out of bars. There were those like Kagura, who probably didn't yet understand that there were ways to focus strength into the weak points of metal, but it was clear that those in the pirate world were experts of escape.
Zenshi couldn't bring himself to smile as the life left the woman before him. Instead, he collected the thin, platinum badge she kept in a pocket and slipped it into his own. She had not been a very familiar face, but was similar enough to one of the bridge techs for him to recognize a crewman's family member.
Meanwhile, Mutsu, Sakamoto, and Kagura had detained all the rest of the Yato. While Kagura was precise in her blows, she did, as Abuto once mentioned, hold back. Sakamoto shot a man in the shoulder, but didn't kill him.
Mutsu, however, exchanged knowing glances with Zenshi, and quickly slipped something down each of their throats. Zenshi assumed it was lethal, at the same time ignoring the pang of something obstinate in his chest when he thought of how she'd concocted that serum. She had learned it somewhere, and it was evident how she knew.
"This is bad," Gin groaned, surveying the damage. "I don't have to pay for this, do I?"
"Do I have to pay for this?" asked Sakamoto, sunglasses slipping down his nose. "I just to pay for Oryou-cha—"
"Shut up," Mutsu growled, taking the man by the collar and dragging him to the wayside. "We'll send a check."
"We're paying?" asked the curly-haired man, oblivious to practically everything.
"No. They are." Mutsu gestured the fallen Harusame, whom, despite their roles as the enemy, had been respectable Yato. Except perhaps one, that is.
Zenshi collected all their Harusame badges, each engraved with an identification number, just as he had been soldier three seven three, even that of the rancid blond he'd shot in the head.
"It's hard to kill crewmates," Mutsu said when he passed her. He threw her a sardonic, deprecating glance.
"Not for you," he replied.
"No, not for me," she agreed. "But my show's different. This is yours."
"There was," he said, rather resigned, "never really a show to begin with."
Yes. Hard to write. Killing people. Ahhhhadhgka
KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU: POOH BEARneeds to be the caption on that Yuzuru Hanyu pic.
Plus all the others: summoning waves, a magic circle, lightning, beams, etc.
There's even one of him kicking Eren Jaeger, like wow.
CONGRATS TO MERYL DAVIS AND CHARLIE WHITE! USA TAKES THE FIRST GOLD IN ICE DANCE!
Okay so this breaks my heart because I love Virtue and Moir, but I'm so happy for Davis and White! (see what being both nationalities does to you, like wow)
but some faves: The French colorful duo and the Swan Lake dance by the Russians
NICE JOB USA - the Shibutani sibs and Chock/Bates
(fun fact: Evan Bates is my friend's cousin! How awesome!)