Ghost's Reign Chapter 2: Oh That Happened, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 2, everybody! Now to see what shenanigans have ensued….

Once again, it's the return of How to Train Your Yokai, starring everyone's favorite Yokai-Tamer! Healing-Talons (Baymax) has concerns. In other news, Obake is trying to make the feather knives Shen uses in Kung-Fu Panda 2.

Ergo is a word I learned early on through the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but I get a lot of amusement from it thanks to one college class I had. It was a marketing class, I was waiting in a little line after class to discuss something with the teacher, and he was telling the girl ahead of me about being careful to keep the writing around the 3rd to 5th grade level.

"Like this one—ergo—most people won't know what that means—" Looks at me. "Do you know what it means?"

Me: "Because or therefore."

Teacher: "Okay you don't count."

Ergo, I've gotten a lot of entertainment out of that word. XD

Hiro finally managed to worm his way out of getting groomed, thought he was in the clear when Older-Brother had to address alpha-duties.

He really should have known better.

"Uh, Healing-Talons, what are you doing?" Hiro asked, glancing back at the white Wooly Howl following him.

"Ensuring you remain unharmed," Healing-Talons said.

"Sure. Except, you know, I'm not in danger, so…."

Healing-Talons huffed at him. "Perhaps not, but we did go through a lot of effort to ensure that. Your brother asked me to keep an eye on you for him, and for everyone's peace of mind I will."

Hiro huffed, unable to argue with that. "All right, fine—but this means you're my lift!" he decided, jumping up onto Healing-Talon's head and nestling in his ruff. "Now come on! Let's go find Obake!"

"I have concerns," Healing-Talons said, padding off into the village-nest.

"Don't worry, I have him perfectly trained."

"That was not my only concern," Healing-Talons said, pausing as a different Yokai went by, both dragon and not-dragon eyeing each other warily. "While Obake may be trained, these other Yokai are not. In addition, I am not certain if Obake is in proper health."

"And yet he's the alpha of the Yokai now," Hiro pointed out patiently, patting Healing-Talons on the head. "As for the other Yokai, we can solve that with a little bit of Yokai-training—it won't take that much effort."

"I have concerns."

"Oh come on—look, leave finding Obake for a minute—let's go solve some of these 'concerns,' okay?" Lean to indicate where some Gronkles were milling about, grooming themselves nervously.

"Hi there!" Hiro called once they were close. "How we doing today?"

The Gronkles exchanged glances. "Um…."

"I don't know," one said, scratching at stony blue and purple scales. "This is…concerning."

"Understandable," Hiro said, jumping off of Healing-Talons to sit in front of them. "But don't worry, I'm here to help. What's bothering you?"

The Gronkles seemed amused, like he was just a hatchling playing at alpha and not a fearsome Yokai-Tamer. "Well," one said, deciding to humor him finally. "Sky-Over-Rock here got a Yokai, sort of, but he's not sure what to do once he's got one."

"That one keeps making nice noises at me," Sky-Over-Rock said, pointing his snout at a Yokai that was similarly indicating him. "Don't think it means anything."

"Not necessarily," Hiro said. "Has it tried giving you fish yet? That's usually a good indication they want to be your Yokai."

Sky-Over-Rock scratched at his ear. "Um…maybe? Wait what do I do with a Yokai?"

"Well! The important thing to know is that they'll give fish for just about ANYTHING. Like—like this." Start going through the tricks Obake would give fish for. "Sit. Sit up. High five. Lay down. Roll over. Play dead. That sort of thing." Snort a little as he rolled back to his paws. "Now, if you want to do something, you have to remember that Yokai do eat fish—that whole 'eat dragons' thing is most likely a myth, given the option they'll go for the fish every time. They also like to nibble-groom, and if you want you can get them things they ask for—like sticks. They like to play this game where they throw a stick away and you bring it back—it's called 'Fetch.'"

The Gronkles didn't seem convinced.

"Ugh—here. This is what you do: you go over there, make sure the Yokai sees you coming, lay down next to it, and purr all friendly-like. They can't resist that."

One Gronkle scratched behind an ear. "I still don't know…."

"Fine, fine—I'll show you. Observe."

"Little-Brother—" Healing-Talons yipped—too late, Hiro was already padding determinedly over to the Yokai, yipped when he was close to alert them to his presence. Not that they didn't already know, having watched him come over warily, but it was good manners to let them know.

"Hiii," Hiro greeted, immediately going into his I'm cute give me fish routine. It was effective on older dragons; now to see how it worked on Yokai.

"I don't like this," one Yokai said, eyeing him. "The Gronkles are one thing, but this is a Fury—dangerously tricky, and this one will only get worse as he gets older."

"Well keep that to yourself!" the other Yokai, the one that seemed interested in Sky-Over-Rock, hissed. "That one's Obake's—he'll have your head if you touch it!"

Hiro sat up now, pawing the air—come on, he heard Obake in there, that meant you guys must know this, stop making him look like an idiot in front of the other dragons…okay, drastic measure time: flop on his back, wiggling around, dialing the cuteness up to eleven. Come on, you guys aren't Mountain-King, you're not immune to this….

"Pretty cute though," the second one said, softening.

"Aye, but I betcha that's not why Obake trained it," the first one said. "I bet the first time you let your guard down it'll be eating your—what are you doing you idiot."

Hiro was already snapping up the fish dangling over his head, rolling to his feet and swallowing before nudging close. "That's right! VERY good Yokai, exactly what I wanted!" he said, making sure his voice carried. "Now pet me—pet me pet me pet me YES." Arch his back as the second Yokai did so. "Good Yokai, very good, I am an excellent Yokai-Tamer." Glance at the other dragons—Healing-Talons looked like he was a shade away from fainting, the one Gronkle looked terrified.

The second Gronkle, Sky-Over-Rock, looked intrigued…finally padded over, chuff to let the Yokai know it was there.

"Good, very good," Hiro said, slipping away from the Yokai to arch his back under the Gronkle's jaw, keeping an eye on the Yokai as he did so. "Look inviting, let the Yokai pet you—okay, it's sticking its paw out…bump your nose against it—there we go!" Bounce away, look the end result up and down—Yokai and dragon looking stunned but happy and excited as petting commenced. "Very good! Take good care of your new Yokai!"

Hiro was beaming as he passed the other Gronkle heading that way to see the event closer, smiled at Healing-Talons when he reached him. "Well?"

"I still have concerns," Healing-Talons said.

"Pff—you worry too much," Hiro said, jumping on his back. "Now come on—let's go find Obake."

Obake, in his opinion, was unfortunately much too easy to find.

He was vaguely certain whomever laid out this village intended to have the important buildings in a centralized location for ease of access, hence the forge being in the middle of the village. Unfortunately, that meant he, the idiot running the forge, was also easy to find, especially when there was smoke coming out of the stack. His morning was filled to the brim with idiots, and he didn't get anything resembling peace and quiet to work on his own things until close to lunch. It seemed as if the whole village had conspired to bother him at least once today; so much for Carl fielding them all.

Obake, meanwhile, had been working on a side project that fell under it pleases me and edged sideways into making everything stretch as far as possible while still being useful.

In this case, he was making a set of knives that were light, thin, and patterned off of feathers. It had taken a bit of experimentation to make one that was strong while using the least amount of metal possible, and now he was testing how far he could push it, shaving off thin lines in imitation of feather patterns, catching the shavings in a pan because he couldn't afford to lose a single ounce at this point.

They really needed a new approach—curse the idiots around them and curse Callaghan for making it so the moment anyone caught wind of who they were they attacked. He was loathe to fall on raiding, but at this point they had no resources to speak of. Thank you, Callaghan, for not enforcing anything involving resources and just allowing a band of mercenaries to run roughshod over everything.

Sigh, pinch the bridge of his nose—like he had been any better. Like he was any better, it wasn't like he was doing anything to reinforce managing resources. Maybe Carl was right, maybe he should be taking this chieftain thing more seriously, instead of hoping he could just shove the job off on Carl.

Wuff.

"So I'm thinking I should really stop with the whole going off half-cocked thing," he said, looking at the little black dragon that had just padded in. "Or perhaps I should plan it better, considering my half-cocked schemes seem to go off without a hitch and my well-thought-out ones blow up in my face."

Hiro tipped his head, confused—yipped and barked at him, bouncing a little on his front paws.

"And I suppose you need a name," he added, glancing at the fluffy white dragon hovering in the doorway. "Don't worry, I won't let Dibs name you."

"Fwuff," Hiro noised, batting at him with a front paw.

"Trust me, that's a good thing—naming a Nightmare 'Fred'….Idiot."

"Dear me, who are we saying bad things about now?"

"Just pick someone and go away," Obake sighed, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. "Actually no wait—I need you to test something."

"This isn't going to be one of your half-baked schemes, is it?" Momakase asked, twirling a knife on the counter. "Because I'd really rather not."

"Actually I think this would be up your alley," he said, holding up a finished feather knife. "Test this."

She took it, considered it. "On?"

"Your usual recipients of sharp objects. Do take note of how it performs, I'm trying for lightweight and low resource."

"And I need this sharpened," she said, throwing the knife she had at him, just narrowly missing his boot. "I don't know why you don't go test this yourself."

"Some of us have better things to do."

"Oh that's rich—from what I've been seeing Carl's the one doing all the work."

"And yet I notice you're not bothering him."

"He's busy."

Obake gestured at his surroundings in aggravation. "And what have I been doing, pray tell?"

"Now that is an excellent question—do let me know when you've figured it out."

Obake huffed as she left, knowing she thought she got the point there. Insufferable…why hadn't she left with Callaghan, it wasn't like he wouldn't have been able to use the thieving swordswoman.

Shake his head at the memory of her being one of the first to side with him—that was a fluke, he was certain, a hope that he'd be more of the same.

He wondered how many people here were disappointed at that.

Hiro—and interestingly the Wooly Howl—followed Obake as he left the forge for the evening, stalking through the village towards where Momakase was likely to be before he lost the late afternoon sun.

He really wasn't surprised to find her in the kill ring, fighting through one of the modifications that simulated village-fighting—tight spaces, narrow room to swing.

"I'm sure your opponents are most diverting," he called down from the stands, standing by the chain netting.

She looked up—sort of huffed at the sight of him. "Get down here."

"I'd rather not, the air is much improved up here." Sidestep quickly, neatly dodging the knife thrown at him. "Also, your sharp objects are up here."

Huff again, disappear.

"I'd much rather have room to run away from her, if it's all the same to you," he said to Hiro to answer his questioning wrff—not that she wouldn't run him down and stab him easily, but he preferred the illusion of escape.

"Wuff," the Wooly Howl noised, alerting him to Momakase's approach.

She held out two silvery objects as she came near. "Didn't last five minutes."

"Ah," he noised, recognizing the feather knife he had given her. Traded the sharpened knives for the broken one, examined the break. "How did it go?"

"Balance is off, didn't throw right, can't tell if the edges were compromised by the grooves." Eye it critically. "You're going to have to come up with a stronger steel than that if you want it to be thinner."

"I'll put it under consideration," he said, pocketing the broken knife. "If that's—"

"No it's not it," she said, hands on her hips, knives having long-disappeared into her belts. "Not that I don't mind playing with any new sharp objects you deign to make, but shouldn't you be testing these things?"

"Why, don't you have anything better to do?"

Probably the wrong thing to say, considering the Wooly Howl and Hiro were now looking down at him. Scowl, roll upright and pretend his dignity was still intact.

"You're the subject matter expert on sharp objects and how they handle," he said, dusting himself off and straightening his coat. "Ergo, it'll be your opinion I'd be consulting."

"Ergo?" she asked.

"Yes, it's one of those words smart people use—" Found himself on the ground again. Shove himself back up—"Will. You. Stop that."

"Shouldn't you be stopping me?" she asked. "After all, leader of the Yokai should be able to keep any challengers off of him."

Honestly, he had been hoping these idiots would have grown weary of the joke by now.

"Why don't I tell them all you're chief now?" he shot back. "It'd solve one of my problems, at least." Not being chief, possibly being rid of either Momakase or some of the villagers…it seemed like the best outcome for himself.

"Mmm, sorry, you don't get to be that lucky," she said, walking off. "I'm having too much fun at your expense this week."

Obake glowered after her, decided any response he deigned to give her would lack any impact.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm going to bed," he informed the dragons watching him. "Maybe tomorrow will be an improvement—perhaps the dragons will have eaten all the Yokai. But I doubt it."

He couldn't be that lucky.