Yuya stared blankly forward, the witch at the store had told them it would take awhile for her spinwheel to be fixed so in the meantime his young lord decided to travel a bit via the cart. Filo wasn't comfortable with the idea of sharing it with the dragon knight. But her complaints were not received.
Yuya had to think of a name for his mount. He couldn't just keep calling it the dragon… It was tedious, so he would have to think of a proper name.
Names were very important to him even if he would deny it when asked. Yuya secretly cherished the name he was currently using, it felt a lot more personalized to him as well. His old titles weren't really names but he liked having them. The one Naofumi gifted him felt right, as dumb as that sentiment was.
So he spent the rest of the trip thinking of a name. Annoyingly his thoughts kept drifting back to Inazuma, a snake to be exact. The one his mother had slain decades ago. The Orobashi… He sighed stretching on his dragon's back.
"It's better than nothing… Alright, you're now named Orobashi." He pet Orobashi's neck as he whispered the name to the dragon. The dragon made a happy noise at that. Jumping a bit. Yuya grabbed hold of his reins to prevent himself from falling.
"Calm down idiot!"The puppet complained. Filo glanced over. Her feathers puffed out slightly with a growl. Raphtalia pulled at Filo's reins.
"Focus Filo!"The cart had started going off course a bit. The bird looked sheepish at being caught as she worked to steady the cart again. The raccoon sighed in relief once the cart stopped shaking so much.
"Sorry…" The bird muttered as she continued her track. She shot Orobashi one final nasty glare before focusing on the road ahead of her. Yuya sighed, that rivalry was going to get old fast if they didn't learn to get along.
Up ahead a man was running. From what Yuya could tell he was carrying a bottle. Filo slowed down as Naofumi made them stop to hear out the human. "I need to get this medicine to the village just across the mountain!" the man pleaded.
Yuya resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His lord was way too kind as he asked the bird how long it would take to get there. She gave an answer. The three set off after his lord demanded payment in some form worth one silver." You three stay put while I deal with this."Naofumi ordered as he set off with Filo and the other man.
He waited with the cart."I finally named it." Yuya spoke to Raphtalia after a moment. She looked over to him and the dragon.
"Oh! That's wonderful, what's his name?" She asked leaning over to pet the dragon's head. Yuya paused for a moment, collecting himself. He's been slowly changing, he wasn't sure what to think about it. Starting conversations wasn't something he usually did. He justified it with the purpose of passing time and making the raccoon aware of the new name.
"Orobashi." He kept his words at a minimum, he would have to re announce this when their lord came back with Filo.
Sure enough his lord eventually returned with a new idea on what they'd spend their time on now. Yuya groaned loudly, hearing what it was.
"What? You don't like the idea of me becoming a wandering Merchant?" His lord asked. Yuya scowled at that.
"I don't like dealing with people. This explicitly will force me to interact with them." The puppet explained his displeasure. The Shield Hero didn't look all amused by Yuya's answer.
"Suck it up, this is what we'll be doing, it's idiotic to pass up a money making opportunity like this."Naofumi told the puppet, who in turn sighed in defeat, knowing he would cross a line if he continued to object.
"Very well, but don't expect me to play nice with every single human we do business with. I don't have that kind of patience at the moment."The puppet confessed. He learned to tolerate the Shield and his party but other humans? No way. He still found them disgusting and beneath him.
Thoughts he carefully kept to himself, he did not want his lord to deem him useless for his lack of empathy for human life. Though from time to time his diastase for humans and filthy emotions cropped up, he tried to reign himself in when he caught himself slipping.
So they started going from place to place to sell services and goods to random people in need at day, Taking anything from money to night his lord studied up on how trade worked in this world and his magic skills. Filo and Orobashi took turns pulling the cart.
Yuya got a chance to tell the party his dragon's new name on the first night. "Orobashi…? That sounds oddly specific." Naofumi pointed out as he placed the book down he was reading from.
"It is the only name that came to mind when I thought of reptiles." Yuya answered. He decided to give a little more on his naming choice. "The Orobashi was a giant snake god that once attacked my old home. Only to be slain later by the god ruling the nation." The puppet offered a very bare bones explanation.
Filo made a weird face at the dragon. "Does this mean Orobashi will also die soon?" She sounded way too excited asking that. The dragon wasn't in the room for obvious reasons. Yuya scoffed at that.
"No, I won't let Orobashi perish like his namesake did to the Musou no Hitotachi."The mere thought of that rubbed him the wrong way, even speaking indirectly of his Mother put him in a somewhat foul mood. He was already attached. He really was getting weak.
"Aw… I Don't like Orobashi! He stinks and always messes up my flow!" she puffed her cheeks out crossing her arms. Something she learned from the puppet. Yuya ignored her complaints.
"Filo, that isn't nice! Orobashi is apart of the team now." Raphtalia scolded the transformed bird for her bratty behavior. "You really shouldn't copy Yuya's mannerisms!" she turned to the puppet who made an undignified sound of alarm.
"I do not act like that." He argued. Naofumi had enough of them bickering. He rose his hands.
"Alright enough you three. They'll kick us out for noise complaints."He said. The three companions settled down. All three were not happy about the abrupt stop in their argumenting." The point being, that's an interesting story behind the name, I keep forgetting you aren't of this world like me… "Naofumi said after thinking about Yuya's little story. The hero had noticed the slight shift in the puppet's wording during it.
"Get some sleep. We have a lot of work to do." The Shield Hero declared. After that night, there had been some tangible tension between the three.
Eventually one day Naofumi picked up a merchant that needed transport. It was Filo's turn to pull the cart. Yuya as usual now always opted to not ride inside the cart, his excuse being that someone had to steer the mounts that were on break.
He wasn't paying attention to what his lord and the client were discussing until Filo seemed to have gotten some ego stroke and broke the rule of not talking in front of strangers.
"Filo's a god?" She happily asked. Yuya found it so absurd he barked a laugh at her expense.
"You a god? That'll be the day." He commented. Filo huffed at that. Raphtalia rolled her eyes at that.
"You don't have to come off as rude, you know." She said, always disapproving of his sometimes hurtful bluntness.
"I'm merely stating a fact. There's nothing Divine or Godly about Filo, Queen or not. Though being seen as a god isn't that big of a compliment as you might think." He didn't elaborate but his tone only irked Filo more. Her feathers puffed out.
Their little spat was cut off when they saw a large group of bandits blocking their passage." Let's put this on hold. We have company. "Raphtalia said as her ears flicked upward.
Orobashi slowed down with a growing hiss in his throat. Yuya ran his hand over the dragon's neck."Easy there, these fools aren't even worth your time to get angry at."He soothed his Beast as best he could.
The bandits started barking out threats of violence and demands at the party. The former Harbinger found it painfully lacking, even when they implied they sexual assault towards Raphtalia and Yuya. Raphtalia asked if they could end the bandits. One boasting about some upgraded Class among their rank, he looked like a ronin to Yuya.
Yuya smiled when his lord gave them permission to attack the garbage. Before either Raphtalia or Filo could react Yuya jumped into action, almost too eagerly. He hasn't had a dose of propper sadism in ages.
"Wretched vermin!" He shouted kicking down a ball of electro infused with the wind spell he learned, swirling his attack for that extra oomph. He gleefully laughed as they screamed in pain. Once his attack settled the bandits were all twitching on the ground, barely alive. He didn't care too much as he took pleasure in their suffering.
"Alright that's enough Yuya." Naofumi reigned the puppet in. Those laughs concerned the Hero ever so slightly… Okay it concerned him a lot. The puppet thankfully backed off.
His mood significantly improved. The bandits were all gathered and tied up. Naofumi waited for them to recover slightly before he turned the tables using Yuya's previous behavior as incentive to scare the beat bandits. Yuya laughed again when they ended up stealing from the bandits. Irony at its finest.
"Alala, these worms aren't worth much. I'm sure they won't be missed." Yuya said, letting his hands spark up. The bandit leader caved and spilled his guts. They were after the jewel merchant. They begged for their lives. Satisfaction spread through the puppet's body as he listened to their terrified pleas.
Yuya was thrilled that the human he owed his life to at least didn't bother with being the perfect hero. He lucked out with this deal. It was entertaining enough. He was slowly regaining his strength, his injuries were a painful memory. They soon took a small detour to go take the items in exchange of sparing their worthless lives.
Snapping out of his revere he helped pack the goods into the cart. He hummed an old tune as he worked. Raphtalia wasn't pleased in the slightest about the moral gray they just entered as she complained about it to the merchant who wasn't bothered by it at all. Going as far to complement the decision.
"Hey, less talking, more helping." Lord Naofumi called out as he carried a box over. With the goods all secured Naofumi asked the Merchant for compensation for all the trouble they've been put through. The man offered information and trade opportunities.
Yuya didn't complain for once. As long as he got to beat up humans that got in their way, he would tolerate being around annoying humans so much. The days passed quickly as his young lord picked up new skills. He helped the young man with forging metal casings for the jewels Naofumi wanted to make and sell.
He found this relaxing as much as he hated admitting it. Though his good mood did sour whenever the contacts his lord made talked about the other Heros. Yuya scoffed at that notion. Those brats were not heroes. But this world was just as idiotic to believe such.
His lord had gotten his hands on some important paper for a mine. They could finally speed up the waiting process on the magical thread they had set out to find weeks ago. The location of the gem the witch lady needed. They set out to the place soon after.
"Finally.. I'm getting tired of fixing Filo's dress all the time." Yuya sighed as they rode to the mines with the witch lady. He had to either patch up her dress or make completely new ones if she forgot to take it off before transforming.
Filo blushed under her feathers at that."It's still very kind of you to fix it even after so many times." Raphtalia offered a glance over to Yuya. He was on Filo as Orobashi was pulling the cart today. Filo made some fuss before she let the dragon take it. Yuya was still secretly amazed at how soft Filo's feathers were. If he wasn't careful he'd just sink into the white fluffiness entirely.
"Keeping it fixed and replacing it is less of a hassle than dealing with nosy humans complaining..."He was fighting off the urge to fall asleep. He had unknowingly been slipping back into an old habit of his when he was known as the Kabukimono and the early stages as the Balladeer. Falling asleep in random moments out of the blue. He had to unlearn that when he got busy as Scaramouche. But with the lack of danger and the need to always keep face his guard was slipping more and more with each passing day.
He blinked back to reality when he felt a hand nudging his shoulder. He sleepily looked over to Naofumi, who had an odd expression on his face. Yuya couldn't place it. He realized they had made it to the entrance of a temple. Oh right it's in there. He vaguely recalled the chat about that.
"You fell asleep, are you feeling alright? You're not running low on power are you?" He asked Yuya. The puppet looked slightly baffled at that notion.
"I fell asleep…? When… for how long?" He couldn't recall when that happened! He was just admiring Filo's plush feathers when he was suddenly awoken by Naofumi.
"The entire trip to the temple actually. So are you running low on whatever is powering you?" Naofumi asked. Yuya shook his head.
"I'm self sustaining… my energy levels are fine. Your dumb shield can confirm it, yes?" He eyed the shield that was currently a book. How that counted as a shield Yuya had no idea. He didn't feel like questioning a dumb weapon.
"I see… just be careful you almost fell off Filo."The green eyed human warned with a concerned frown. Yuya felt something lightly stir in his empty chest. He pushed it down.
"Noted. Maybe if things weren't so boring." Yuya deflected with his usual attitude. Naofumi sighed, hearing Yuya back to his usual self. His worry lessened slightly.
The witch told them about an evil Alchemist that used to occupy these ruins beforehand as they entered the dark corridors. Filo paused. She heard something as the others went ahead.
"Filo! Don't fall behind!" Naofumi called out. Yuya felt off as they walked suddenly things turned dark even with the torch lighting the way and Yuya's night vision. He stopped walking entirely hearing that voice again. "Scaramouche."
The puppet went pale as the voice of the Doctor echoed in his ears as if he was standing right next to Yuya." Oh how far you've fallen puppet." Dottore chuckled in his ears. He spun around. Trying to figure out what was going on. How was he hearing that voice? "Scaramouche, you are nothing without me." the Doctor continued to dig at his mind.
"Poor puppet needs a puppet master to do anything. You can't even think for yourself, following anyone who shows you even the tiniest bit of attention, how laughable that you've been reduced to someone's attack dog once more. I made you what you are." Yuya growled at this. He wasn't…! He didn't need anyone! He wasn't weak! The Doctor didn't make him into anything! He'd argue the Doctor took more than gave. His hands sparked up with rage as he spun around again firing off his Electro Blades with blind rage.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He growled out repeating those words, throwing his magic around without thought or care. He didn't hear the shattering of magic as the echoes of Dottore's laugh burned into his skull. Not until his body seized up.
His reality came back to him when he felt the strings on his back. Pulling slightly taught. "hey look at me. Yuya? Hey!" he realized Naofumi was shaking his shoulders. When did…?
"Relax… whatever you heard wasn't real. It was just an illusion." Naofumi said, trying to calm the puppet. They realized he had fallen behind when the bat monsters had attacked them. When they found him he was indiscriminately attacking everything around him. Chunks of monster flesh and broken rocks littered the area. The smell of a thunderstorm had overtaken the damp smell of the temple corridor.
Whatever the puppet heard triggered a violent response. A seething anger Naofumi felt through his shield when he equipped the Shouki No Kami String Shield to subdue him until he calmed down as one of the stray blasts hit Orobashi's side.
"An illusion…?" Yuya's voice went eerily calm and leveled when he realized what had happened to him. "Of course… HeHe wouldn't… InfsntI can't believe I fell for another…" the puppet trailed off muttering under his breath. Naofumi couldn't make out anything else Yuya said, but he realized Yuya was far more troubled than he first thought. It felt wrong seeing the headstrong puppet freak out like that. It wasn't who Yuya was.
This eery calm also felt wrong. "I'm fine now.. You can release me." The puppet said stiffly. Naofumi released the purple strings. He blinked, feeling Orobashi nudge his hand. He was worried about the puppet. "I'm fine…" He repeated giving the dragon a small head pat. Some guilt rose as he noticed a scorch mark on Orobashi's scales.
"Come on, we found a cave entrance up ahead." Yuya brushed off his sleeves as he nodded slowly. Almost mechanically he walked ahead. Inside the cavern were blue crystals and a giant sleeping monster.
The witch informed them it was a Nue, it had the body of a tiger, the mane of a lion, the face of a monkey and a snake for a tail. Raphtalia rushed ahead. Filo followed hot in pursuit. "Wait! Don't just rush into things!" Naofumi yelled.
Raphtalia got swatted aside by the angered monster. Filo tried her luck only to be dodged. Naofumi cursed under his breath as he ran to shield his party from the monster. "Please cover us!" He told the witch and Yuya.
She fired off a fire spell that didn't do much but it did slow the monster down. Until it started to spark blue electricity. Filo reacted by pulling her Master out of harm's way. Yuya moved, intercepting the bounding claws of the monster, his own purple sparks dancing against the blue.
The Nue roared in surprise as it's electrical attack did nothing to the puppet. A vicious grin spread across his face. Pent up rage from earlier now had a valid release. He manifested his catalyst firing off electro charged attacks one after the other. Not giving it an inch.
He grabbed its tail that was trying to bite him. His grip tightened as he started pulling. His other hand grabbed its throat. He did not even flinch when it tried to electrocute him again. The others watched in awe as the puppet had caught the Nue by complete surprise.
"You honestly think your pathetic lighting can harm me?" Yuya laughed at its feeble attempts. He was admittingly dragging out this fight. He had a lot of rage he wanted to release.
"Kill it already!" Naofumi barked out. Yuya scoffed with a slight growl. He ripped the tail off the monster. It's shrieks were muffled by chokes as Yuya slowly crushed it's throat with his bare hands. The puppet was pleased that his superior strength was slowly returning to him as well. It finally died when Filo kicked it's skull. Putting it out of its misery as Yuya was taking a bit too long to do it.
"I had it under control." He snapped at the bird wiping his face from the gore he caused. Not even the thrill of dominating a monster was enough to soothe him at the moment.
"You were taking too long!" Filo argued. Raphtalia gripped her arm. Slightly shocked that Yuya wasn't even harmed.
"How did you…?" She began to ask. Naofumi tended to her wound. He lightly scolded her.
"You have to be more careful, you could have gotten horribly scarred."He tied a bandage around her wounded arm. Raphtalia blushed lightly at this action.
"I was born from thunder and lighting. Naturally the element that forged me wouldn't harm me in any meaningful way."The puppet gave his answer as he turned to kick one of the crystals free from the ground. "Ch… Damn that bastard even when he's not here he ruins my mood." He couldn't get Dottore's annoying laugh out of his head. That lowly worm was dead if Yuya ever saw him again. How dare he just abandon him to the enemy. He couldn't even get his revenge thanks to getting stuck in this Archon forsaken world.
"Yuya." He turned as Naofumi called his name. He wasn't expecting another hug. This one felt tighter than the last time he had gotten one. The rage in him stilled in favor of confusion.
Naofumi didn't say anything for a solid minute. The silence was enough to communicate his intent to everyone but Yuya. "You shouldn't act so brashly… Even if you were immune." Naofumi said as he released Yuya from the hug.
"Whatever was bothering you clearly is affecting your thought process." Yuya stayed silent for a bit before he sighed and answered.
"It won't happen again… I apologize, my lord." His words came out stiff and forced. Like he was lying through his teeth. Naofumi didn't pry further. They collected the material.
"Good job, now let's get out of here. I had enough of this temple." Naofumi said.
Yuya agreed on that. They left, returning to the castle town.
Yuya apologized to Orobashi for hurting him while the others waited for Filo to weave the magical threads. Yuya stared at his clothes… tearing the red fabric off completely. He gripped the emblem on his chest, ripping it away. He needed to distance himself from Dottore, from Teyvat, a world he never really belonged anywhere movement startled everyone.
"Are you sure you're okay? You've been acting strangely ever since those bats attacked…" Raphtalia asked, shifting in her seat.
"Ch it's complicated. But all you need to know is I'm not letting it bother me. No, that would mean he's right." He didn't elaborate. "Lord Naofumi, I think I want a change of outfit. This one… has run out of utility for this name." This was his Harbinger outfit. Not Yuya's. With a new identity a new look is needed. A restlessness stirred in him. A craving he couldn't place. His joints ached, phantom pains crawled over his back.
"So please grant me some funds to buy fabrics. I wish to make myself new clothes." Yuya declared with no hesitation or leaving any room for denial.