Chapter VIII: Darkness Unleashed
'Great idea, idiot. You finally find a group of decent people to trust you and what's the first thing you do? You summon a giant Black Beast head from the ground.' The Reaper sighed to himself in the middle of his internal lecturing. He and the rest of the Shepherds were walking back to the capital of Regna Ferox with the rest of the nobles. Well, the Shepherds were walking, the nobles were taking their carriages. 'At least those noble dicks aren't talking to me anymore, but that just means they're probably taking their brown nosing to Chrom, poor bastard.'
Indeed, since the battle Ragna had gotten very little attention from the nobles, of course that might be less about the move that Ragna used and more about his apparent gruff attitude mixed with his aggression towards most of them. It didn't help that every time a noble attempted to congratulate him on the fight, his words to them were usually along the lines of 'piss off.' They didn't like his attitude? Well, he wouldn't be this way if he didn't have to fight for some self-serving nobles, would he?
Even with the support his friends had needed from these nobles it wasn't them that he was worried about, but rather his newfound group itself. Even if Ragna had been rough around the edges (putting it very lightly), recently he'd begun to soften up little by little. Now after they'd seen his massive attack on the Risen… they certainly seemed to be minding their distance from the man.
'Can't say I blame 'em, I'm probably not easy to get along with at the best of times and after what I just pulled it's like they're walking around with a nuke… which they don't have this world… I miss Celica.'
"Ragna." And here it was. Frederick was talking to him. Ragna inhaled deeply through his nostrils. Either he was about to need to make a break for it, the knight was going to interrogate him after all, or he was going to take his sword away. Turning to the Great Knight, Frederick oddly enough was holding a sack of freshly made bread. "Take two, that your share."
"My… share?" the Reaper asked.
"From the nearby town that we saved. They prepared fresh bread for us after we saved their lives and wanted to thank us all for the efforts." Frederick's face was a stoic as it usually was so, the Reaper simply nodded and took his two loaves. "…You seem to have something you wish to say."
"No, but I'm wondering why you're not on my case now with what I just showed off," Ragna answered.
"Are you planning to use it against Chrom or Ylisse?"
"What? I… no," Ragna answered. "I had been, I would've used it any other number of times."
"Obviously. And are you planning to explain yourself to the rest of the Shepherds? You seem to want to."
"…That's because I do, and I'll tell 'em soon enough," the Reaper said with a determined nod. "So that's it?"
"For now it is… but I don't know how much I can insist you keep yourself in line."
"Don't ask for miracles." The two left things there, but as Frederick left, Ragna took another look at the group of Shepherds he was still a part of… maybe they'd recovered more quickly than he'd though because a few of them were actually giving him small waves when he looked their way… waves which he awkwardly returned. 'Maybe this can still work after all.'
It was then that Chrom and Lissa ran up beside Ragna. "So, how was it mingling with the upper class?"
"I thought I'd never get out of there," Chrom said shaking his head. "All of them were trying to congratulate me on our victory and ask if I had plans for my station after the war. Obviously they were just trying to get some influence over me after we showed them… that."
Ragna wisely decided not to push the subject at the moment.
"He had it easy!" Lissa shouted. "I had to sit silent and look dainty and endure suggestive looks from this one creep who kept staring at me!"
"You know, there's an easier way to deal with nobles," the Reaper suggested.
"And that is?" Lissa asked, genuinely curious.
"Remind them of what I did last night; tell them I'm ready to get them intimate with the ceiling at a moment's notice. And if we're outside, I'll put 'em six feet in the other direction."
"Ragna," Chrom groaned as Lissa giggled. "Please don't tempt me…"
Authors Note: I don't own Fire Emblem or BlazBlue.
After editing this, this turned more from an inserted scene to some personal reflection from Ragna. This was always going to be one of the biggest changes (with another big one coming up soon). Hope you enjoyed the change and I'll catch you later. Ciao!