Disclaimer: Read Chapter 1
Prose 8
After a particularly grueling kendo practice with Takeru, Yui rushed to lunchtime. She had arranged to meet the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, for lunch today and didn't want to keep him waiting. As she darted passed the classroom, Dionysus stopped her.
"Hey Kusanagi," he called out and the two other Greek gods flanked his side. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"I'm having lunch with an Aztec god today," she replied, purposefully not uttering said god's name. She was afraid to make a fool of herself.
Apollo however looked dramatically crushed. There was no subtlety in any of Apollo's expressions. Poor guy. It made it hard for Yui to want to disappoint him.
"But Miss Fairy always has lunch with us," he whined, his big green eyes wide and for a moment Yui thought that Apollo would actually start weeping.
"Come now, Apollo," Dionysus chuckled, winking at Yui, "Kusanagi has a date with a nice swarthy Aztec god. Would you really deprive her of that chance?"
That only seemed to upset Apollo even more.
"It's not a date," Yui tried to correct, but he seemed to be breaking for whatever reason. Hades was even stroking his back.
"Come now Apollo, its just ONE lunch," the ruler of the underworld patted his nephew's head before tugging the back of his collar to get him to leave. Blubbering his protests, Apollo went to have lunch at the usual gazebo with his brother and uncle.
Yui didn't move until he was out of sight, feeling a little sorry. Thinking Apollo just had separation anxiety, she quickly made her to the lunchroom. She didn't think she was nervous, but at some point she felt horrible because she knew nothing about Quetzalcoatl to think she could have a nice long conversation. Heck, she'd be afraid to say his name.
As she reached the entrance to the lunch hall, she spotted the bulky mass of the other Aztec god, Tezcatlipoca, sitting alone at the bench besides the entrance, eating small sandwich, clearly not trying to draw attention to himself. The god paused seeing Yui.
"Afternoon," Yui greeted with a wave. Tezcatlipoca stood, leaving his sandwich on the bench, wiping the crumbs on his hands on his chest.
"Afternoon, Kusanagi," his raspy voice replied. He seemed to be less ruffled than the last time she saw him.
She drew closer to the god, smiling pleasantly, thankful that he didn't seem to be in such a bad mood, "Are you eating alone, Tez—er. Forgive me. I can't quite pronounce your name."
Tezcatlipoca didn't look too surprised. Besides Zeus and Thoth, no one at the school seemed to know his name very well. His face still set in a grim countenance, he sighed, "I'm not surprised. I also go by Tepeyollotl, but I suppose that's not any better."
"No, I'm sorry," she replied. The muscular god ran a hand over his short black hair.
Finally, he relented in allowing her to call him by a nickname, "Tezca. You can call me Tezca for short. Just anything but 'Cat-Cat'."
"Do you not mind?"
It was quite plain that he did mind on some level, but not enough to force this human to pronounce his complicated names to the utmost perfection. He rather have his divine named shortened like the Japanese gods rather than have it butchered.
Tezca's eyes darted away, avoiding eye contact with the human girl, "No, I don't mind."
Yui opened her mouth to ask if he would like to join her with her lunch with Quetzalcoatl, but the brawny god interrupted, pointing behind him to the lunch hall, "You'd better get going. Quetzalcoatl is waiting."
Yui withheld a breath sensing that Tezca didn't want to be around his counterpart. Not even a little bit. But despite the two gods being forced to stick closely together, Tezca seemed very alone and uncomfortable being stuck with his ever popular rival for the duration of their tenure here.
"You are right, but I will see you later, Tezca," she smiled waving entering the lunch hall, missing Tezca's half wave back.
Tezca returned to his bench but stopped as he saw a white rabbit sniffing his half-eating sandwich. "Hey!" he growled trying to shoo the rabbit away. The animal quickly hopped off and hopped past the lunchroom entrance to the east hallway past the doorway.
At the very least, Tezca's sandwich was untouched.
Inside the lunch hall, Yui spotted Quetzalcoatl immediately. His rainbow hair was hard to miss. He was sitting alone at a table, his uniform coat slung over and empty seat and the first few buttons of his black vest and undershirt undone. He sat looking calm and suave as could be, his titanium eyes glinting when he spotted her.
"Hey there señorita," he waved her over. "I was afraid you'd have some better things to do than join me."
"No, no," Yui laughed, "I was caught up with the other gods. I'm sure you understand."
"I do," he purred. He gestured to the dishes in front of them as she sat down. "Please help yourself."
The dishes had a wide variety of things; corn tortillas, peppers, avacado, seeds, beans, small strips of meat and most of all, corn. Lots of corn.
"I recognize it is a whole mish-mash of things, but I will say they are flavorful. Thoth seems to get a kick out of our cuisine."
It smelled so good. Yui wasn't one for spicy things, which this food no doubt had, but the fragrance was hard to resist. Quetzalcoatl picked up the flat corn tortilla and stacked all sorts of things in it. At Yui's lost expression, he laughed, "Stack whatever you want. If you don't like the spiciness, put on the avocado. It cools it off."
Well that makes sense. She put a small amount of everything on her plate, but heaped gobs of avocado.
"Did you make this yourself?" she asked.
Quetzalcoatl shook his head, "No, it was magically conjured, but I added a few things to give it that extra kick from back home."
Yui helped herself to a small spoonful, marveling the flavorful taste. It did leave a sting as the spice hit her, but it was muted by the corn and avocado.
She swallowed her food before asking, "Tezca is outside. Does he not eat with you?"
At hearing the nickname, Quetzalcoatl arched his brow. He always found it amusing that Apollo gave his darker skinned friend the nickname "Cat-Cat" and now "Tezca" from the human girl. He could practically hear his cohort rustling his whiskers off—so to speak.
"'Tezca'?"
Yui nodded, "I asked if I could call him something else. I can't pronounce your names properly, you see. He seemed to be okay with me shortening it to 'Tezca'."
At this Quetzalcoatl looked legitimately surprised, "Oh?"
"Yes…erm…unfortunately I'm not too good with your name either."
Quetzalcoatl could understand, but he wasn't one to want to give himself a nickname. His name in his realm was divine.
"Perhaps I can help you pronounce it."
Yui swallowed her food hard, eyes wide in fear. She had a hard enough time pronouncing the Norse surnames. 'Hringhorni' and 'Megingjörd' didn't exactly roll off her tongue.
"First let's start with what you can pronounce."
Yui thought. Hearing Apollo refer him as 'Quetz-Quetz' she knew that was at least the start.
"Ket-zal….Ket-zal-coat-l?"
Quetzalcoatl nodded, "The first part is close. Try Ket-sal-ko-ah-tl. There's nothing hard in my name. It's all soft sounds if you know what I mean."
Yui repeated his name again. And again. And again. She inadvertently sounded his name to a beat to help her, which Quetzalcoatl found quite amusing.
"I must say I like the sound of you singing my name," he laughed.
Yui frowned, frustrated, "Hey! I'm trying."
Smiling, Quetzalcoatl waved his hands defensively, "I know, señorita. And I do appreciate the effort. You are far closer than most others."
"Well, Ket-sal-ko-ah-tl. I guess that's a compliment."
"It is I assure you. I like giving compliments. Especially to pretty señoritas like yourself."
Yui flushed at being called 'pretty'. It wasn't like she wasn't complimented before, but she always drew herself in when a god…who more than likely had their fill of beautiful goddesses…complimented her on her looks. And Quetzalcoatl knew how to turn on a smooth charm that made it hard not to gush at his attention.
Unlike Apollo or any of the other gods, the more she talked to him, the more she realized Quetzalcoatl was more mature, more grounded, despite his rather high opinion of himself and others. He told her stories of his realm and gave her a little insight into Aztec mythology. Possibly more insight than she could receive from a book. The only problem was keeping all the names together. Yui hoped he wasn't going to quiz her later.
Yui in the meantime told him of her escapades so far at the school. Like the summer vacation and the fireworks as well as the Moon Viewing celebration.
"Sounds fun," he said with a whimsical smile. "I should hope to have that much fun during the Winter Solstice."
"I'm sure you'll do something great—" before Yui can continue the bell rang. She paused, giving Quetzalcoatl an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Ket-sal-ko-ah-tl. Class is about to start."
The god leaned back in his seat, making no move. He didn't have to go to classes so he could lounge around as he could. He waved her apology away, "You have more pressing matters to attend to than speaking to an old god. Best to not keep Thoth waiting. He seems to be the type to have his feathers ruffled and squawk when things don't go exactly his way."
"Oh, you have no idea. I will see you later."
She waved goodbye to Quetzalcoatl and stepped out in the hallway and immediately spotted Takeru wandering about, looking confused and upset.
"Usamaro!" he called. "Where are you little fella?"
Did Usamaro run off again? That bunny was as independent as could be. While Usamaro loved his master, Tsukito, he did like to run off when the god was busy with other things.
"Is Usamaro missing again?" she asked and Takeru nodded.
"You haven't seen him have you?" he asked. "Brother is upset that he can't find him."
Yui paused, for a moment thinking it was urgent if Tsukito of all people became upset. But then Takeru shrugged, "Well…as upset as he can manage."
"I think I know where your rabbit went."
Takeru and Yui turned to see Tezca standing from his bench rigidly. Takeru of course had never seen this god before, but didn't question him as he told them what happened.
"The little rascal was trying to steal my sandwich so I chased him away. He ran down that hall," Tezca pointed down the east hall.
Yui turned to Takeru, "Okay, I'll find him. You'd better get to class before Thoth starts it."
"Right," Takeru was about to run off but he stopped himself, "What about you?"
"I'll think of an excuse, don't worry."
She ran off down the east hall and in a brief moment was reminded of how she followed Usamaro to find Tsukito. Months later she found Usamaro to be the perfect buffer between her and the very emotionless god. Still, Tsukito seemed to be very attached to the rabbit. She could perhaps believe if the familiar went missing, Tsukito would've been crushed.
"Usamaro!" she called, hoping the white rabbit would pop out and come to her. She checked in small closets, unused classrooms and underneath benches. As she closed the door to a water closet she spotted a small white thing dart around the corner of the hallway from the corner of her eye.
Quickly she followed him down the hall and turned the corner into a part of the school she hadn't ventured yet. The hall was dark and empty, like it was unused. An unsettling feel dropped in her gut as she slowly scoured the area for any sign of Usamaro.
"Well, well. Is someone lost?"
A dark snide voice with a very distinct brogue accent called from the shadows. Yui turned to her side and spotted a dark figure hidden in the shadows by the wall next to a pillar. He was tall and held a squirming Usamaro in one hand and a bit of lettuce in the other.
"Looking for this?" he violently held out the poor rabbit and at that point Usamaro managed to wriggle out and plop on the ground before hopping away safely back to where he came from.
The man laughed darkly, "That moon god had better start keeping better watch over his things. Else they'll run into trouble."
He stepped out of the shadows and Yui stepped back, even as he slinked towards her, "But I've found something more interesting."
"Step back!" Yui said abruptly, not wanting this…man to come any closer. The air around him was just unpleasant. The god was good looking and slick, but to Yui it was quite plain he was no good. His dark hair was slicked back and he wore a black leather jacket over his dress shirt. His smirk was toothy and sharp, his eyes black pits of the darkest, hollowest obsidian Yui had ever seen. A blue stripe of paint ran from his lower lip down to his chin and black smudges were painted around his eyes, making them seem even darker, if possible. As he spoke Yui could see on his tongue a stud piercing limiter in the shape of a Celtic cross. As the god moved fluidly and dangerously, she was caught by his smell. It was sweet, but underneath that was the pungent odor of rot and decay. For a moment, Yui knew that this was what death smelled like.
"You're Crom Cruach," Yui said flatly, trying not to show too much fear in front of him, but that was hard to accomplish.
The god stopped, "So you've heard of me. I'm quite surprised. Especially…"
He leaned in, nostrils flaring. He sighed in satisfaction, "Oh…you are a human and…"
Yui blinked and before she knew it, he was behind her. Immediately she turned to face him, never wanting him to leave her sight.
"…a virgin. Oh it's been so long since I've smelled one of those."
"Do not come any closer," Yui demanded. "I know what you do to humans. I know you take them as sacrifices."
Crom Cruach frowned, "So that's what's this hostility is about. No doubt those Norse told you all about scary evil Crom Cruach."
"Are they wrong?" she glared at the god. Up till now she gave all gods the benefit of the doubt, but every instinct on her part screamed to run away. Run away and never ever stop. Before she could react he slunk to her side, hand gently on her shoulder as he replied in a low voice, "If they are not, then what? Would you go off and give the other gods the same courtesy of hostility?"
Her nose wrinkled as his smell slammed her senses, "What are you talking about?"
"You demonize me for providing my worshippers what they wanted. Good years of harvest and food. I only took what they offered. What does it matter if a few is lost to save and help a thousand?"
Yui thought that he did have a point, but that didn't make him any less vile to her. "It's barbaric."
Crom Cruach's brows shot up and he laughed darkly, "Not any more barbaric than the other gods here. You see, human girl, your beloved Norse relish in the barbarism, praising those who kill and destroy. Need I mention your new Aztec friends?"
Yui flinched, "What about them?"
Crom Cruach paused his mouth splitting into a disgusting smile, "Those human sacrifices you hate so much. Ask them about human sacrifices. You'll find they too know much about taking human lives. So, little lass, ask them. I think you'll find I'm not the sole god to condemn."
He straightened and swept passed her as her mind was a flurry. Did he mean that Tezca and Quetzalcoatl took human sacrifices as well? Her heart pounded in her chest. She couldn't imagine Quetzalcoatl doing such a thing. Tezca neither. And what about her other classmates? Did they too view human life as expendable?
Crom Cruach seemed to relish in getting her upset, seeing that struck look in her wide innocent eyes. A chuckle formed low in his throat. Yui stared at him incredulously. Shaking her head in denial she finally had enough of talking to Crom Cruach and quickly she finally decided to run.
Run away without a second thought. She thought she could hear Crom Cruach's horrible laughter penetrate the hall as she scrambled back to class.
A/N: Finally I get to introduce the infamous Crom Cruach. Plus a mini-date with an Aztec god-sort of. And in answer to the obvious question...yes Aztec human sacrifices happened.