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almondinflower2009-04-13 01:20 pm
fromastudio) wrote in almondinflower2009-04-13 01:20 pm
The Skylord, part 5/? [Gokudera, Tsuna, various]
The Skylord, part 5/?
Characters: For this chapter, Gokudera, Tsuna, Reborn, Lussuria, Levi
Summary: ...and at last, a potential Skylord.
Notes: Concrit welcomed, as I really appreciated the various comments that came in on the last chapter of this fic. (haven't actually done anything concrete about improving the last chapter as yet, but I did find them very valuable.)
Gokudera found Namimori nestled in the shadow of a mountain, lying on a wide coast beside a deep blue sea that glittered like diamond. For a moment he was taken aback, when the path he was walking curved sharply and the city appeared in front of him; he hadn't expected it to be beautiful.
Well, he hadn't expected it to be ugly. He hadn't expected anything of Namimori, really – it wasn't as if he remembered his mother telling him anything about the place. All she'd left him were her sharp fine features and narrow, very dark eyes, so different from Bianchi's. So different from all the other children Gokudera had grown up with.
He scowled at the direction his thoughts were taking. Doesn't matter now. If I find – when I find the Skylord, my position at the castle will be rock-solid. There isn't a single person who'd dare to challenge a Guardian's position at court.
On closer look, Namimori did not prove so very different from Vongola City. It was perhaps a more neat and orderly city, its streets and squares clean and well-swept, with uniformed guards patrolling every few blocks.
Of course. Hibari Kyouya's missing, so naturally they've tightened the security.
How, in a city of this size, did one go about locating a potential Skylord? It wasn't as if the likely candidates just walked around emitting Dying Will Flames.
“You look like you're lost,” chirped a high-pitched voice coming from somewhere near his knees.
Gokudera took a step backwards, and then glanced down. A chubby face smiled up at him, framed in smoke the colour of amber. “Hello, Gokudera.”
Gokudera catalogued the details – infant face and figure, black dress suit, jaunty black hat, with a complicated orange cravat that seemed to be concealing something at the child's neck, something that shone with an unearthly light. He felt dizzy.
“Reborn,” he said. The Yellow Child. He crouched down and reached out, only to have his fingers pass through empty space when he tried to touch the infant's hat. A projection, nothing more.
“You're late,” said the image. “I expected you here two days ago.”
He flushed. “I had some problems.”
“Only weak people make excuses,” said Reborn. “You should have found some way to overcome your problems.”
Gokudera felt suddenly, furiously indignant, and gulped down the feeling. This was Reborn he was talking to. “Why are you here?”
“Catching the sea breeze.” The infant's clothing changed to that of a long-sleeved woollen swimsuit. “The air in Namimori is famous for improving's one's health.” When Gokudera stared at him, he added, “Why are you here?”
“I'm looking for the Tenth Skylord.” He felt defensive. “Like I was told to.”
“Well, you're looking in the wrong place.” A portly woman carrying a basket of fresh produce brushed past Gokudera and looked at the image of Reborn rather strangely; it seemed like magical manifestations in the street weren't as common in Namimori as they were in the Vongola capital. “Since you're wasting your time here, you should leave.”
“Wait. First you say you've been waiting for me for two days, and then you tell me to leave? Why didn't you just send a message earlier?”
“I didn't say I was waiting for you. I said I expected you.” A map and a compass appeared in the infant's hands. “I have your next destination for you. Let's see.. the Kokuyou Marshes. That's where you should be going right now.”
That was it. Reborn might be the greatest of the Rainbow Children and therefore the most hallowed creature in the country short of an actual deity, but Gokudera didn't allow anyone to treat him like this. “Look, I don't know what you have in mind, but like hell I'll go haring off into some wasteland without more of an explanation--”
“You want to be the Storm Guardian, don't you?” Gokudera fell silent, cut off mid-sentence, his mouth still slightly open. “Well. Do you?”
He scowled. “Just tell me what I have to do at Kokuyou Marsh.”
“For now, all you have to do is get there.” Reborn's high, breathy child-voice was still sounding as the image faded, dissipated into paling yellow smoke. “We're expecting you. Don't be late this time.”
#
Kokuyou Marsh lay in the southeasternmost reaches of the Vongola duchy, eighty square miles of mist and treacherous ground beginning half a day's journey south of Namimori and continuing all the way to the border. Gokudera had heard stories of people disappearing there, of worn and rotting corpses surfacing at the edges of the water channels, bloated with damp and disfigured beyond recognition.
If he was honest with himself, the thought of going there scared him, just a little.
But he was not a coward. He began in his mind to go through the things he needed before resuming his journey.
I need more food – and maybe a couple of ring-amplifiers. There was no knowing what monsters or enemies might be waiting at Kokuyo, no telling what the nodes and the ley-lines were like, or whether they were even usable, and he needed all the magic he could get. Better safe than sorry.
It took him some time to find a shop that sold magical supplies. He had to stop and ask for directions several times, and had to visit a second store after an unsuccessful and heated attempt at bargaining with the owner at the first one.
The second shop was only a little cheaper. “This is ridiculous,” he complained to the woman behind the counter. “In Vongola City I could get this for three-quarters of the price.”
“I'm sorry, sir, but the price is fair. It's difficult finding rings in Namimori; we usually have to go up to the capital to get them, or else down south, in the Gesso lands. If you buy more than one, though, I could give you a discount.”
It wasn't as if he had other options. “One storm ring, and one multiple-affinity ring. High grade.” He didn't have enough money to buy amplifiers for each individual affinity.
The sunlight seemed unnaturally bright as he stepped out from the store; in fact, it was so warm he felt his skin burning. He snapped to attention, slipped on the rings he had just bought. Around him, the air began to stir into a wind.
Then the lightning started to flash. He leaped back as it struck the cobblestones at his feet; smelled singed leather arising from his left boot. The second bolt landed ten yards away, narrowly missing a street urchin who darted out of the way. Gokudera reached inside his jacket for his sticks of explosive powder, and scanned the area for the source of the disturbance.
Two men stood on the other side of the street, surrounded by a fizzling electrical charge. The rest of the townspeople were rapidly backing away from them.
The one on the left started walking towards Gokudera. His face was thick with maquillage, and he wore a woman's headdress of ostrich's feathers, the kind usually seen only at the stuffiest and most formal Court events. “Mmm, He looks delicious. Not my type, though.”
““Focus on the job, Lussuria.” The second man came closer. He was a full head taller than Gokudera, dressed in a dark thick coat despite the warm weather. “Boy. Are you a storm mage?”
In reply Gokudera activated his rings, surrounding himself with a cloud of red magic.
“I see you are. Well, then.” The man lifted what looked like a black parasol. “Die.”
Gokudera threw up a concave shield just in time as lightning surged from the huge man towards him. A scarlet wind spun out and intercepted the lightning, breaking it up into hundreds of small sparks that veered back towards Gokudera's attackers. A small shower of them landed on the pink-haired man called Lussuria, sending an unpleasant smell into the air as they scorched and blackened his headdress.
“You messed up my hat, you little brat!” Lussuria began glowing golden as he advanced on Gokudera. Gokudera pulled more explosives from inside his coat and ignited them with a twist of storm magic, tossed them outwards in a spreading fan pattern. They exploded, flooding the street with smoke.
He moved backwards so that he could breathe without coughing, blinking away the smoke. His field of vision was just beginning to clear, when a fist drove into his stomach and another one smashed him in the jaw. He fell to the ground as someone wearing heavy boots kicked him hard in the left shin, and a screaming pain went through his leg.
“I've got him!” cried Lussuria. Gokudera stared up at the pink-haired man, unable to move, his thoughts frozen.
Abruptly and without warning, the entire world was filled with orange light. At the same time something hard and blunt knocked violently against the side of Gokudera's head, and he lost consciousness.
#
When he came to, he was sore everywhere: a deep dull ache in his left leg, a throbbing headache, a swollen right cheek, and what felt like a thousand scrapes and bruises all over his skin. His eyesight was blurry, his surroundings unfamiliar, and for some moments he was lost in a disoriented panic, before he managed to calm himself and take stock of the environment.
He lay beneath a wooden sloping ceiling with crossbeams low enough for him touch. Underneath him, he felt a straw mattress. On his left was a window with plain wooden shutters, letting in a bright light that hurt his eyes.
He turned onto his side to get a better look at the rest of the room. It was cramped, and contained little besides a carved chest in one corner, and a stool by the bedside that carried Gokudera's coat, neatly folded. Gokudera's satchel lay against one leg of the stool.
Feeling uneasy with his weapons out of reach, he tried to struggle upright. Pain in multitudinous parts of his anatomy brought his efforts to a halt, and he let himself fall back against the mattress with a gasp.
Footsteps approached, with the heavy rhythm that suggested they were climbing a staircase, and then a boy entered the room, carrying a wooden cup.
“You're awake! I'm so relieved.” Gokudera tensed as the boy came closer. He looked to be in his mid-teens, short and thin, with messy brown hair. He smiled rather nervously at Gokudera. “I brought you some water. I'm going to put it on the windowsill, can you manage?"
As the boy leaned across Gokudera to place the cup on the windowsill, Gokudera reached up and grabbed his throat.
At once the boy pulled himself away with a quick twist. The momentum caused him to stumble and fall against the chest, in the opposite corner of the room from Gokudera. The cup fell onto the bed; water seeped into Gokudera's clothes and the mattress.
The two of them stared at each other.
“What happened?” Gokudera asked harshly.
“Nothing I-I mean, I did nothing!” The boy brought himself to a standing position. “I found you lying there on the streets, that's all. You were pretty beaten up. What are you trying to do?” he asked in alarm as Gokudera once again tried to get out of bed. “You shouldn't move, you're injured - ouch.” This last was spoken in response to Gokudera raising his head and promptly hitting one of the crossbeams above him.
Gokudera ended up flat on his back again, feeling like his life was trying to ring out through his ears, his entire body one large collection of pain dominated by the agony in his skull.
“I don't have time for this,” he ground out when he was finally able to speak. His voice sounded weak to himself. “I need to be at Kokuyou as soon as possible.” And get back at those bastards too, but his voice didn't seem to be able to manage any more words.
“Look, just stay still for a while. We're looking for a sun mage who can fix you right up. Do you mind waiting for that?” When there was no reply, the boy sighed. “Rest for now, okay? Mamma's preparing tea, I'll bring it up to you in about an hour.”
He began to leave, but when he was in the doorway he turned and said, “My name's Tsuna, by the way. What's yours?”
Gokudera ignored Tsuna, and instead angled his head to look out the window. The sky above the city was perfectly blue, and scattered with rainbows.
Part 6
Characters: For this chapter, Gokudera, Tsuna, Reborn, Lussuria, Levi
Summary: ...and at last, a potential Skylord.
Notes: Concrit welcomed, as I really appreciated the various comments that came in on the last chapter of this fic. (haven't actually done anything concrete about improving the last chapter as yet, but I did find them very valuable.)
Gokudera found Namimori nestled in the shadow of a mountain, lying on a wide coast beside a deep blue sea that glittered like diamond. For a moment he was taken aback, when the path he was walking curved sharply and the city appeared in front of him; he hadn't expected it to be beautiful.
Well, he hadn't expected it to be ugly. He hadn't expected anything of Namimori, really – it wasn't as if he remembered his mother telling him anything about the place. All she'd left him were her sharp fine features and narrow, very dark eyes, so different from Bianchi's. So different from all the other children Gokudera had grown up with.
He scowled at the direction his thoughts were taking. Doesn't matter now. If I find – when I find the Skylord, my position at the castle will be rock-solid. There isn't a single person who'd dare to challenge a Guardian's position at court.
On closer look, Namimori did not prove so very different from Vongola City. It was perhaps a more neat and orderly city, its streets and squares clean and well-swept, with uniformed guards patrolling every few blocks.
Of course. Hibari Kyouya's missing, so naturally they've tightened the security.
How, in a city of this size, did one go about locating a potential Skylord? It wasn't as if the likely candidates just walked around emitting Dying Will Flames.
“You look like you're lost,” chirped a high-pitched voice coming from somewhere near his knees.
Gokudera took a step backwards, and then glanced down. A chubby face smiled up at him, framed in smoke the colour of amber. “Hello, Gokudera.”
Gokudera catalogued the details – infant face and figure, black dress suit, jaunty black hat, with a complicated orange cravat that seemed to be concealing something at the child's neck, something that shone with an unearthly light. He felt dizzy.
“Reborn,” he said. The Yellow Child. He crouched down and reached out, only to have his fingers pass through empty space when he tried to touch the infant's hat. A projection, nothing more.
“You're late,” said the image. “I expected you here two days ago.”
He flushed. “I had some problems.”
“Only weak people make excuses,” said Reborn. “You should have found some way to overcome your problems.”
Gokudera felt suddenly, furiously indignant, and gulped down the feeling. This was Reborn he was talking to. “Why are you here?”
“Catching the sea breeze.” The infant's clothing changed to that of a long-sleeved woollen swimsuit. “The air in Namimori is famous for improving's one's health.” When Gokudera stared at him, he added, “Why are you here?”
“I'm looking for the Tenth Skylord.” He felt defensive. “Like I was told to.”
“Well, you're looking in the wrong place.” A portly woman carrying a basket of fresh produce brushed past Gokudera and looked at the image of Reborn rather strangely; it seemed like magical manifestations in the street weren't as common in Namimori as they were in the Vongola capital. “Since you're wasting your time here, you should leave.”
“Wait. First you say you've been waiting for me for two days, and then you tell me to leave? Why didn't you just send a message earlier?”
“I didn't say I was waiting for you. I said I expected you.” A map and a compass appeared in the infant's hands. “I have your next destination for you. Let's see.. the Kokuyou Marshes. That's where you should be going right now.”
That was it. Reborn might be the greatest of the Rainbow Children and therefore the most hallowed creature in the country short of an actual deity, but Gokudera didn't allow anyone to treat him like this. “Look, I don't know what you have in mind, but like hell I'll go haring off into some wasteland without more of an explanation--”
“You want to be the Storm Guardian, don't you?” Gokudera fell silent, cut off mid-sentence, his mouth still slightly open. “Well. Do you?”
He scowled. “Just tell me what I have to do at Kokuyou Marsh.”
“For now, all you have to do is get there.” Reborn's high, breathy child-voice was still sounding as the image faded, dissipated into paling yellow smoke. “We're expecting you. Don't be late this time.”
Kokuyou Marsh lay in the southeasternmost reaches of the Vongola duchy, eighty square miles of mist and treacherous ground beginning half a day's journey south of Namimori and continuing all the way to the border. Gokudera had heard stories of people disappearing there, of worn and rotting corpses surfacing at the edges of the water channels, bloated with damp and disfigured beyond recognition.
If he was honest with himself, the thought of going there scared him, just a little.
But he was not a coward. He began in his mind to go through the things he needed before resuming his journey.
I need more food – and maybe a couple of ring-amplifiers. There was no knowing what monsters or enemies might be waiting at Kokuyo, no telling what the nodes and the ley-lines were like, or whether they were even usable, and he needed all the magic he could get. Better safe than sorry.
It took him some time to find a shop that sold magical supplies. He had to stop and ask for directions several times, and had to visit a second store after an unsuccessful and heated attempt at bargaining with the owner at the first one.
The second shop was only a little cheaper. “This is ridiculous,” he complained to the woman behind the counter. “In Vongola City I could get this for three-quarters of the price.”
“I'm sorry, sir, but the price is fair. It's difficult finding rings in Namimori; we usually have to go up to the capital to get them, or else down south, in the Gesso lands. If you buy more than one, though, I could give you a discount.”
It wasn't as if he had other options. “One storm ring, and one multiple-affinity ring. High grade.” He didn't have enough money to buy amplifiers for each individual affinity.
The sunlight seemed unnaturally bright as he stepped out from the store; in fact, it was so warm he felt his skin burning. He snapped to attention, slipped on the rings he had just bought. Around him, the air began to stir into a wind.
Then the lightning started to flash. He leaped back as it struck the cobblestones at his feet; smelled singed leather arising from his left boot. The second bolt landed ten yards away, narrowly missing a street urchin who darted out of the way. Gokudera reached inside his jacket for his sticks of explosive powder, and scanned the area for the source of the disturbance.
Two men stood on the other side of the street, surrounded by a fizzling electrical charge. The rest of the townspeople were rapidly backing away from them.
The one on the left started walking towards Gokudera. His face was thick with maquillage, and he wore a woman's headdress of ostrich's feathers, the kind usually seen only at the stuffiest and most formal Court events. “Mmm, He looks delicious. Not my type, though.”
““Focus on the job, Lussuria.” The second man came closer. He was a full head taller than Gokudera, dressed in a dark thick coat despite the warm weather. “Boy. Are you a storm mage?”
In reply Gokudera activated his rings, surrounding himself with a cloud of red magic.
“I see you are. Well, then.” The man lifted what looked like a black parasol. “Die.”
Gokudera threw up a concave shield just in time as lightning surged from the huge man towards him. A scarlet wind spun out and intercepted the lightning, breaking it up into hundreds of small sparks that veered back towards Gokudera's attackers. A small shower of them landed on the pink-haired man called Lussuria, sending an unpleasant smell into the air as they scorched and blackened his headdress.
“You messed up my hat, you little brat!” Lussuria began glowing golden as he advanced on Gokudera. Gokudera pulled more explosives from inside his coat and ignited them with a twist of storm magic, tossed them outwards in a spreading fan pattern. They exploded, flooding the street with smoke.
He moved backwards so that he could breathe without coughing, blinking away the smoke. His field of vision was just beginning to clear, when a fist drove into his stomach and another one smashed him in the jaw. He fell to the ground as someone wearing heavy boots kicked him hard in the left shin, and a screaming pain went through his leg.
“I've got him!” cried Lussuria. Gokudera stared up at the pink-haired man, unable to move, his thoughts frozen.
Abruptly and without warning, the entire world was filled with orange light. At the same time something hard and blunt knocked violently against the side of Gokudera's head, and he lost consciousness.
When he came to, he was sore everywhere: a deep dull ache in his left leg, a throbbing headache, a swollen right cheek, and what felt like a thousand scrapes and bruises all over his skin. His eyesight was blurry, his surroundings unfamiliar, and for some moments he was lost in a disoriented panic, before he managed to calm himself and take stock of the environment.
He lay beneath a wooden sloping ceiling with crossbeams low enough for him touch. Underneath him, he felt a straw mattress. On his left was a window with plain wooden shutters, letting in a bright light that hurt his eyes.
He turned onto his side to get a better look at the rest of the room. It was cramped, and contained little besides a carved chest in one corner, and a stool by the bedside that carried Gokudera's coat, neatly folded. Gokudera's satchel lay against one leg of the stool.
Feeling uneasy with his weapons out of reach, he tried to struggle upright. Pain in multitudinous parts of his anatomy brought his efforts to a halt, and he let himself fall back against the mattress with a gasp.
Footsteps approached, with the heavy rhythm that suggested they were climbing a staircase, and then a boy entered the room, carrying a wooden cup.
“You're awake! I'm so relieved.” Gokudera tensed as the boy came closer. He looked to be in his mid-teens, short and thin, with messy brown hair. He smiled rather nervously at Gokudera. “I brought you some water. I'm going to put it on the windowsill, can you manage?"
As the boy leaned across Gokudera to place the cup on the windowsill, Gokudera reached up and grabbed his throat.
At once the boy pulled himself away with a quick twist. The momentum caused him to stumble and fall against the chest, in the opposite corner of the room from Gokudera. The cup fell onto the bed; water seeped into Gokudera's clothes and the mattress.
The two of them stared at each other.
“What happened?” Gokudera asked harshly.
“Nothing I-I mean, I did nothing!” The boy brought himself to a standing position. “I found you lying there on the streets, that's all. You were pretty beaten up. What are you trying to do?” he asked in alarm as Gokudera once again tried to get out of bed. “You shouldn't move, you're injured - ouch.” This last was spoken in response to Gokudera raising his head and promptly hitting one of the crossbeams above him.
Gokudera ended up flat on his back again, feeling like his life was trying to ring out through his ears, his entire body one large collection of pain dominated by the agony in his skull.
“I don't have time for this,” he ground out when he was finally able to speak. His voice sounded weak to himself. “I need to be at Kokuyou as soon as possible.” And get back at those bastards too, but his voice didn't seem to be able to manage any more words.
“Look, just stay still for a while. We're looking for a sun mage who can fix you right up. Do you mind waiting for that?” When there was no reply, the boy sighed. “Rest for now, okay? Mamma's preparing tea, I'll bring it up to you in about an hour.”
He began to leave, but when he was in the doorway he turned and said, “My name's Tsuna, by the way. What's yours?”
Gokudera ignored Tsuna, and instead angled his head to look out the window. The sky above the city was perfectly blue, and scattered with rainbows.
Part 6