AN: Hi everybody! Cranked out another chapter for you guys! (Instead of doing my homework, go figure.) I am seriously so touched by all the faves, follows, and reviews! I'm so glad you all are enjoying this story. I'm reading some nice stories from people's profiles too. If I forget to check out your stories, please, feel free to remind me in a PM or in a review. Now, without further ado, I give you Chapter 3!
Notice: I own nothing, for I am not Hiro Mashima. Amen.
Chapter 3: Ghost of a Wound
Kagura waited impatiently at the train station. It was twenty past seven. Rogue was late. Kagura had already missed one train because of him. She wasn't going to miss another one.
As the minutes went by, Kagura grew more and more agitated. Where was Rogue?
After ten more minutes, the next train came. Kagura sighed, in half relief and half disappointment. It looked like she would be going alone after all. She started to board the train.
"Kagura, wait up!"
Kagura wheeled around in surprise to see Rogue with Frosch holding onto his back, gliding down onto the platform. "Sorry I'm late," he greeted her. "It was not a good idea to have Frosch fly us here."
"Fro thinks so too!"
Kagura regarded him coldly. "That's no excuse. Now come on, you already made us miss one train." She turned around and marched onto the train, not waiting to see if Rogue followed or not.
When Kagura collapsed onto the seat in an empty car, she saw Rogue and Frosch sit on the seat opposite her. She angrily refused to return Rogue's greeting. This was why she went solo.
"Kagura?" A little voice spoke. "Fro is sorry. Fro tried his best but- but he got lost. Please don't be mad at Rogue." The poor Exceed was tearing up. Kagura felt all her anger melt away. Some big sister she was!
"Oh, no, it's okay, Frosch. I'm sorry, it's not a big deal. Come here." Frosch smiled and padded over to sit on Kagura's lap. She looked pointedly at Rogue's eyes. "I'm sorry. It's really no big deal."
Rogue smiled and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Oh, no worries. I mean, we were pretty late, after all!" Kagura was oddly impressed with the guy. He took all this in stride, even though she was the one acting unreasonably.
The train started to move, and Rogue collapsed onto his side with his hand over his mouth, taking up a full seat all by himself. Kagura sweatdropped, and Frosch laughed.
"Uh, I thought motion sickness was Natsu's weakness…" said Kagura.
"All dragonslayers- *urp*- develop it eventually," Rogue managed.
"Are you okay, Rogue?" Frosch asked worriedly. Rogue nodded. "Fro thinks so too!"
Well, doesn't look like this train ride will have too much in the way of conversation, Kagura thought. Frosch curled up and went to sleep on her lap. He has the right idea. "Hey Rogue? I'm going to try to get some sleep. Wake me up when we get there." She paused. "Or if you need anything," she added.
Rogue managed a nod. His face was a pale shade of green. Kagura leaned back and closed her eyes.
There was Kagura's hometown, Rosemary Village, exactly as she remembered it. She was a small child, and her home was in flames. Dark cultists ran around snatching children and stuffing them into bags. Kagura turned left to right in desperation. Where was Simon? They couldn't have taken him already. Not again. They did every night.
A small hand took her own, and led her down a nearby alleyway, into the main square. It was the childhood version of Erza Scarlet, leading Kagura to safety. Suddenly Erza disappeared. In the center of the plaza appeared a tall man with messy blue hair, and a glowing red tattoo underneath and above his right eye. Jellal. Jellal raised his fists above his head. In between them was a pulsating mass of pure death magic.
In front of Kagura appeared the same man she saw every night. He was tall and muscular, his torso loosely covered by a light cloth, his hair wrapped in a turban. Around his face was some sort of brace, made of silver, with teeth-like designs etched into the jaw. An eye patch covered his left eye. He smiled at Kagura, then turned around and held his arms out in a protective gesture, as if he were shielding her. As she did every night, Kagura wondered who this man was, and why he was protecting her.
Jellal's form flickered. He transformed into Erza Scarlet. She leapt forward, sword in hand, and cleaved the man in two from the head down. Kagura screamed and tried to run, but her feet were fixed to the ground, her frozen and staring straight ahead. She reached out a hand, but then felt an unimaginable pain in her abdomen.
Kagura looked down to see Archenemy's blade protruding from her stomach. Even though this had happened countless times before, the shock was still the same. Kagura could feel the pain and heat beginning to overtake her. Her eyes fluttered shut…
"Kagura! Kagura, wake up!"
Kagura opened her eyes to see Rogue leaning over her, his hand on her shoulder, an overwhelmingly concerned look on his face. "Are you alright? That must have been one hell of a dream."
"Fro thinks so too…"
Kagura realized she was on the floor of the train car. She cursed herself for being so dumb. Just because she hadn't had the dream for weeks meant it was gone, right? Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Seriously, Kagura. What happened?" She could feel his hand trembling on her shoulder. He was incredibly nervous, and scared. In his eyes was some unidentifiable feeling. It felt like somehow Rogue could sense her pain, and was trying to share some of the burden himself.
"I… I'm all right. Don't worry." Her hand absentmindedly found its way to her stomach, where Minerva had stabbed her. Even though the wound hadn't actually hurt in months, it still had some sort of dull throb.
Rogue clearly didn't look convinced, so Kagura strained and put on her stern face. "Hey, how can you move, anyway?"
Rogue started. "Oh, god! I forgot! The train stopped moving a couple minute ago, we've got to get off now!"
That put Kagura into high gear. Without thinking, she slung Rogue over her shoulder and tucked Frosch under her arm. She ignored Rogue's protests and dashed off the train, leaping from the door just as it started to move again. She dumped Rogue unceremoniously onto the ground, barely panting from the exertion.
Rogue grumbled and stood up, brushing himself off. "Was that really necessary?" Kagura did not deign to reply.
"So," she started. "Our mission is pretty simple. We're to track down the remnants of a small dark guild in the woods surrounding this town. The dark guild is actually a relatively powerful one, despite not being part of the Big Three, o it's important for us to be on our guard. Frosch, it might be best for you to stay in town. We don't want to risk you getting hurt."
Frosch clung to Rogue's shin. "Fro wants to go with Rogue!"
Rogue petted the little Exceed's head. "Don't worry," he said with a serious look on his face. "I'll make sure to protect Frosch." He and Frosch looked so determined, so inseparable, that Kagura knew it would be pointless to argue.
"Fine!" she said. "Just make sure not to get in my way."
The encounter would have gone a lot worse for them if Kagura hadn't expected to be ambushed. The first few attackers who leapt from the trees were sliced down in a flash. Kagura barely gave them a glance. The rest of the dark guild's forces poured into the clearing, surrounding Kagura: around twenty or so men wearing masks, dressed in light battle armor, wielding various magic weapons. Rogue grabbed Frosch and melted into the shadows of the surrounding trees.
The first five men surged forward towards Kagura. Kagura sliced the first one's sword in half, then parried and twisted her body to catch the other four's weapons. She twisted and flicked downwards, disarming the rest of the attackers, then cut all five down in one fell swoop.
The rest of the men backed up warily to the edge of the clearing, before realizing that there were still fifteen of them and only one of her. They all surged forward with renewed confidence. Unfortunately for them, when they reached the edge of the clearing, dark hands pulled several of them into the shadows, from which they did not emerge. Now it was merely ten mortals against Kagura.
They foolishly attacked three or four at a time. Kagura easily dodged, parried, and disarmed her attackers, then cut each one down where they stood. Well, that was boring, she thought.
Kagura suddenly felt a sharp pain in her upper back. She collapsed to her knees, feeling a circle of numbness spread outward from the painful spot. She groped around her back, found a knife, then pulled it out with a gasp. But the pain didn't stop. The poison kept spreading up her arms, down her legs. Through hazy vision she saw a short, black-garbed figure with a black bandanna tied around his eyes leap down in front of her.
"You're…" she gasped. "Shinai, the blind assassin. But you're from the Southern Wolves guild. What are you doing working for a dark guild?"
The man cackled. "Hey, times are tough, what can I say? I'll work for whoever's got the jewels. And I think your head will fetch me quite the bounty, miss Kagura!"
An explosion of darkness billowed around where Shinai was standing. Rogue emerged from it. "Looks like he won't be hurting anybody anymore."
"I beg to differ," said his voice from behind Kagura. Kagura tried to turn around, but just the thought of moving made her woozy. She saw Rogue cup his hands around his mouth. "Shadow Dragon…"
Kagura felt herself being pulled up by her hair, a sharp blade being pressed to her throat. "I'd cut that out, boy, or the girl gets it," threatened Shinai. Goddammit, thought Kagura. I'm so useless. If it weren't for this poison draining my energy, I could use my Gravity Magic… She tried to open her mouth, to tell Rogue it was okay, that the mission was more important than her life, but she couldn't speak. The poison had spread up to her neck.
Rogue didn't even hesitate to stand down. He raised his hands in surrender and kneeled down, his head towards the ground.
A flash of silver zoomed past Kagura's blurry vision. It sped right into Rogue's chest. Despite the pain, Kagura's mouth opened into a scream.
Suddenly Rogue's body erupted in darkness. His arms became covered in dark curving runes. His hair spiked up, and black triangular runes encircled his chin. Shadows curled off him like steam. He radiated pure, unadulterated evil.
Rogue stood up and pulled the dagger from his chest. "Thanks for weakening Rogue for me, Shinai. I rarely get to come out and play. We're going to have so much fun."
Hope you guys liked this chapter! Not a whole ton of Rogura per se in this chapter, but that will be remedied next chapter I promise! ;) As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to rate and review! It helps me out, and it also lets me know about new accounts with sweet stories for me to enjoy, which I will happily rate and review and stuff. Anyways, hope you all have a totally rad day.