Quest for the Magic Forest Part One - KAT-TUN [PG]
Quest for the Magic Forest
tinyangl, 12,598 words
KAT-TUN, with appearances by Johnny, Yamapi, Ryo, Tegoshi, Takki, Tsuyoshi and Yokoyama. KAT-TUN is brought together by King Johnny in order to save the kingdom, but when complete strangers meet for the first time, it's bound to not be easy.
A/N: This... started out as a joke (it kind of still is XD). Something small I wrote after seeing KAT-TUN's Lips PV and couldn't get out of my head as being a fantasy story--mainly because fantasy is my favorite genre--and thanks to anamuan's prodding, I managed to turn it into full blown fic (originally all in comments, I might add) complete with villains and mocking jokes and utter stupidity. So please don't take this seriously at all. At all. I rarely, rarely write all of KAT-TUN in one go, so hopefully the OOC is not in full force. (OOC doesn't strictly apply to just KAT-TUN, by the by.) And I may be a little forceful at the beginning with the characterization, but I hope that doesn't turn anyone off. XD This has been over a year's project so I'm just glad to finally see it done.
Thanks so much to anamuan's work on this (and everyone she asked to help as well)--without you, dear, this never would have gotten made. ♥♥
"You-tachi. Only you have the power to save the kingdom." Jaws dropped and the room dipped into an awkward silence as King Johnny stared at each one in turn. “You are all exceptionally powerful in your fields.”
"Kamenashi Kazuya with the power of fire." Kame blinked before bowing to the king, a little startled.
"Akanishi Jin with wind."
"I do my best my work," Jin said solemnly, although the others stared at him a little strangely after that.
"Taguchi Junnosuke has the power of water under his command." They gave Taguchi a side glance as the male smiled brightly, bowing at the waist.
"Tanaka Koki with the power of earth." Koki looked around, sizing everyone up as though just their outward appearance determined how powerful they were.
"Ueda Tatsuya has lightning." Ueda just stood unwavering in his gaze.
"And Nakamaru Yuichi also with the power of fire." Nakamaru nodded as his stomach dropped at the idea that there were two with the power of fire-what was the point in that?
There was a small snicker off to the side. Jin looked at the faces that were gathered in the small throne room. "Ne, ne?" he started, calling their attention to him. "You know, if we put our initials together, we'd be KAT-TUN!"
Everyone blinked at him, confused.
"It's like we're a band," he said, a little more insistent now.
Everyone ignored him and turned their attention back to King Johnny who coughed loudly.
"You-tachi. Save the magic forest from going up in flames. Oracle Koichi foresaw the event and urged me to form this in order to prevent it." Johnny boomed from his throne, the crown crooked on top of his head.
They exchanged looks-none of them knew who the other was, much less what they could each do. Koki raised an eyebrow. "We're supposed to save this place? I don't even know these people."
"Well, that's what the journey's for! Getting to know each other and working together," Taguchi proclaimed. Nobody seemed to hear him.
Koki nudged Nakamaru, asking, "What can you do?"
Nakamaru pulled out his a staff-the top in the shape of a flower-and started beat boxing; the top of his staff started to glow an orange before a fire ball hit the spot right next to Koki's feet. He stopped, looking pleased with himself before Jin said, rather nonchalantly, "That takes a lot of time, doesn't it?"
"Is that really the extent of your powers?" Koki asked, giving him a pitying look.
"I'd like to see you do better," Nakamaru retorted.
Koki grinned, pulling out a staff identical to Nakamaru's. "Ore wa Joker," he hissed before the top glowed a green and the ground underneath them started to shake for a few seconds before stopping abruptly.
"Nononono," Jin said excitedly before pulling out his own staff. "Mine's good too!" Everyone watched as he did some obscene movement with his tongue, the top of his staff glowing a darker silver than it already was. Suddenly, the wind inside the room picked up and in front of them a small tornado whirled before disintegrating into dust just as quickly as it formed.
Kame snorted beside him making Jin throw him a dirty look. Without saying a single word, he pulled out his staff and screeched loudly into it, the rest of them covering their ears to avoid hearing it. The staff glowed a more intense red than it had for Nakamaru before fire started to rain from the ceiling. He suddenly stopped; they blinked blankly at him.
"You win," Koki murmured. Taguchi nodded vigorously beside him. Kame grinned in turn, until suddenly a bolt of lightning struck a foot away from him. Instantly Kame jumped, knocking into Jin in his surprise.
A bright yellow glow on Ueda's staff told them the source and it dimmed seconds later. Ueda looked at them quietly, a small smile on his lips, while Kame rolled his eyes.
"Or not," Nakamaru said, blinking at him.
Jin stared. "You didn't even do anything!"
Ueda answered serenely, "The fairies helped me."
Only Kame snorted.
~*~
"THIS CHILD HAS MAGIC," the teacher exclaimed excitedly as he waved his staff around Jin's head. "I can sense the power in this one."
Jin's mom exchanged a look with Jin before turning incredulously, "You're serious?" She looked down again at her child. "Do you... feel like you have magic?"
Jin blinked widely, his hand wrapped tightly around her pointer finger before asking "If I say yes, does that mean I'll definitely have magic?"
The wizard blinked. "I-"
"Only if you want to."Jin's mom interrupted.
"Do I get to have a staff like that?" Jin asked, more excited this time.
"Of course!"
"Then yes!"
The wizard stared. "It doesn't work like that."
Jin's mom threw him a dirty look before crouching down to her child's eye level. "Now remember. Never use your powers for evil. And listen to your elders, but only if what they say makes sense."
Jin beamed brightly. "UN!"
~*~
Jin was sure the others thought less and less of him as they continued on their journey. Every time he opened his mouth, they'd throw him funny looks and Kame had even taken to calling him "Bakanishi" more often than not. (He knew he shouldn't have told them that story with Pi and something with variables and stuff, but it had been so quiet and Jin hated silences.)
And they were still being annoyingly quiet-Journeys were supposed to be fun! And exciting! Not strained and awkward.
"So guys!" Jin started, trying to get at least one conversation off the ground. They all gave him bored looks though, which almost made him want to give up. "What do you think we're going to get as a reward for all this? I mean, King Johnny said we'd definitely be given something for all our work." He beamed brightly. "I hope it involves food. And alcohol. And maybe women."
Kame threw him a dirty look. "The faith of the kingdom rests in our hands and you're wondering what we're getting as a reward? Where's your loyalty?"
Jin frowned, a little wounded. "Hey, I'm completely loyal! I'm here, aren't I?" He stopped in his tracks, the rest of them halting as well. A furrow settled between his eyebrows.
Nakamaru put his hand on Jin's shoulder, trying to sooth him with the action, but Jin shrugged it off.
"I could be back home, trying to make sure that Pi doesn't burn down his restaurant," Jin snapped, suddenly wishing his best friend was here.
"Pi. Pi. Pi," Koki hissed. "That's all you ever talk about."
Nakamaru's eyes went wide as he shook his head vigorously. "Come on, guys," he started. "Let's not fight."
Nobody heard him.
"He's what I know," Jin exclaimed. "I grew up with him. Is that so wrong?!"
"I grew up with Ueda, but you don't see me harping on and on about him!" Kame snapped.
"That's because he's here!" Jin shouted. "He's here." Jin’s voice tattered at the edges and Jin couldn’t find it in him to continue the words; his fists clenched at his sides.
There was a long silence before Taguchi moved, slinging an arm around Jin's shoulder and pulling him close. "We're all scared," he mused softly. "But we can rely on each other. Just you wait, Akanishi-kun."
Everyone stared - Kame and Ueda exchanged glances and the anger in Koki's face quickly died down as they watched Jin duck his head down, hands furiously rubbing against his face.
"Let's keep going,” Nakamaru sighed. “At the next town, we should find an inn. I think we need some rest." They all nodded and one by one, they started walking-Jin still pressed against Taguchi’s side.
"I still think you're an idiot," Jin mumbled to Taguchi.
Taguchi smiled. "Whatever gets you through the day."
Up ahead, Kame slowed his pace, now only a few feet away from Jin and Taguchi. He tilted his head back just enough so that the other two could see him properly. "Sorry," he muttered embarrassed, before moving back up to join Ueda at the front.
Jin stared. "That happened, right? I didn't imagine it?"
Taguchi nodded, his smile wider. "Un! See, Akanishi-kun! It's already starting!"
~*~
Nakamaru's parents looked from the wizard to their son. "This one? Are you sure it's not one of our daughters?"
Nakamaru nodded along with them, no pains in admitting that he didn't think he was one to have magic like this wizard said he did.
The wizard, for his part, looked irritated rather than enthusiastic, which had been his demeanor only 5 seconds ago. "Yes. I'm positivee. This one has the power of fire. Your daughters, as great as I'm sure you think them, have no such sign."
Nakamaru's father looked warily. "But he's so..." Nakamaru blinked innocently at his dad, his hand clutching tightly to the leg of his dad's pants. "Normal," his father sighed before leaning down to scoop Nakamaru into his arms. "It's not a bad thing."
The wizard frowned. "Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there." He stared eye to eye with the child Nakamaru. "You're meant for great things."
Nakamaru blinked. "Really?" A small smile started to grow on his face.
"Normal won't ever be the word to describe you," the wizard assured him.
Nakamaru could feel his father's grip around him tightening, but his awe overtook every other sensation. "What do I have to do?" Nakamaru asked, his voice a mixture of shy and curious. The wizard smiled.
~*~
Nakamaru thought the idea of crashing at the nearest town was the best they'd had so far. The strain between all of them had been getting too hard to handle and Nakamaru didn't know how he could fix it. When they reached the inn, they split into pairs-Kame with Ueda (predictably), Jin and Taguchi-which left Nakamaru with Koki.
Honestly, he didn't mind any of them: they seemed like nice people in their own right and all seemed to have a reason to be there. Some, though, took longer to warm up to than others. And Koki was one of them.
After Jin's explosion at the side of the road, Koki had been edgy the rest of the trek-refusing to talk to anyone, walking a small distance away from the group like he was never a part of it to begin with. And Nakamaru did try (as did Kame and Ueda and even Taguchi; Jin, however, pointedly ignored Koki), but nothing worked.
In the inn, Nakamaru crashed on top of his bed, suddenly feeling exhausted. Any thoughts and worries about the dynamics of their group and whether they would be able to do as they were asked were erased from his mind. Within seconds, he fell fast asleep.
When Nakamaru woke, the sunlight that he'd fallen asleep to had disappeared, replaced by the florescent glow of dim street lamps. Moaning, he stretched a little-feeling sorer than he was used to-and looked around the room, the light from the candle on the side table burning steadily. He supposed Koki must've lit it, except there was no sign of Koki actually in the room. Taking the candle’s stand, he moved outside of the room, trying to find his roommate.
Outside the room was a staircase leading down to the local tavern which was still filled with people-no matter the late hour Nakamaru supposed it was. Nakamaru was easily able to find Koki who was sitting down at a table along with Ueda and Kame-drinks in front of them. They seemed to be having a good conversation which brought a smile to Nakamaru's face.
He moved down the stairs, thinking he could join them when he heard his name being passed around between them. Nakamaru froze midstep, heedless as people knocked into his shoulders as they passed.
"Nakamaru's the weakest of us all!" Koki slurred. "Why would they ever choose him to be part of our group?"
Ueda faintly nodded. "It does take longer for his powers to actually show up too. He has to go through that... noise thing he does." He took a sip of whatever drink he had in front of him, looking dainty in his motions.
"You never know. Maybe he's hiding something that he has yet to demonstrate," Kame pointed out.
Koki snorted. "He seems too normal for that."
Nobody seemed to see him. Nakamaru could feel his stomach plummeting. The word echoed in his head-"normal." No matter what his teacher said-he would be stuck with that one word. Nakamaru didn't know how long he stood there until scalding hot wax spilled over the stand and onto his hand. He yelped, ignoring all sense of anything else as he blew on his hand (and the candle out) in one go.
It felt like the place had plunged into silence as Nakamaru shakily looked up, meeting Kame's eyes first of the three. The other two turned to look at Nakamaru silent-Koki’s eyes were blank. Nakamaru awkwardly laughed, "Sorry. Sorry. Just some candle wax. Don't let me bother you."
Kame started to stand up, but Nakamaru shook his head, stepping backwards with a plastered smile. He gestured for Kame to stay, and he hoped the look on his face was enough to say that he was fine. When Kame sat back down, Nakamaru figured his message was received and so, he turned to go back to his room, catching sight of Jin and Taguchi right behind him.
Jin’s face was pitying when Nakamaru reached the top step. "What?" Nakamaru said shakily. "I'm fine. Normal Maru. I'm used to it."
An arm comfortably rested itself over his shoulders and Nakamaru looked up at Taguchi. Another one snaked around his waist-Jin-and Nakamaru relaxed into their arms. "Come on, then, Normal Maru. You're staying in our room tonight and showing us how you'd normally lose a poker game," Jin joked.
Nakamaru snorted. "I can show you how I normally kick people's asses." He allowed himself to be led into Jin and Taguchi's room - relaxing into the soft banter.
They'd become a cohesive group at some point, Nakamaru thought-tonight, though, was not the right time.
~*~
Ueda stared at the scrawny kid next to the wizard. "Who's that, master?" Ueda asked, one eyebrow raised-a weird look on any kid.
The wizard sighed as Kame's hold on her leg tightened and he looked about ready to burst into tears. "Ueda-kun, I told you before not to call me master. It's not like I'm your boxing teacher." She grabbed Kame by the cuff of his shirt, effectively yanking him away from her leg. "And you. You need to stop shying away from people. Ueda-kun won't bite."
Ueda tried to grin; it was shaky at best. The wizard sighed.
"You'll be learning magic together, so I'd like it if you could get along," she said, pushing Kame towards Ueda. "Now shake hands."
Kame slowly stuck his hand out, which Ueda took squeezing. Tears quickly started to form in Kame's eyes as he tried to pull his hand away from Ueda's grip. When he finally managed to, Ueda looked thoughtful.
"Maybe you should take up boxing with me. It'll make you stronger and not as scrawny," Ueda suggested helpfully, with a little wrinkle of his nose as he looked over the younger kid. Kame appeared like he was about to burst into a fresh stream of tears.
The wizard moaned as she thought of all the work she was going to have to go through.
~*~
"You know they hate you, right?" Ueda said nonchalantly as he paged through a book. It had been about two weeks since Nakamaru had overheard their conversation and it seemed strained between those three and the remaining three. Koki couldn't remember a thing of what he'd said, and while he was confused as to what had happened-knowing he’d said/done something wrong-he kept to himself. After that, any thing Kame said seemed to bring conversations to a complete halt while Ueda slowly became friendly with the other three.
"No," Kame snapped as he eyed Ueda from under his arm. "I had no idea. Tell me more about how I'm the most hated member of the group."
Ueda shrugged. "I just thought you should know in case you were under the delusion that people actually like you."
"Ugh," Kame groaned. "Weren't you the asshole when we were kids? When'd it change?"
Ueda snorted. "I obviously taught you too well." He removed his glasses and shrugged. "You do realize you're going to have to fix this."
Kame sat up, his hands in between his legs at the edge of his bed. "At least I'm not the only one," he said childishly. "Koki's disliked as much as I am."
Ueda shrugged again. "It's not a competition, you know."
"I know," Kame sighed. "I'll try doing something about it in the morning."
The next morning, all six boys met up in front of the inn-ready for the next leg in their journey-and again, they unintentionally split into three. Nakamaru, Jin and Taguchi joked around on one side of the road while Kame and Ueda walked alongside them and Koki trailed behind them all quietly.
Ueda elbowed Kame. "Didn't you say you were going to fix it?"
Kame looked at the three warily. "I said I'd try."
"I don't even see that effort," Ueda retorted.
Nearby, the three burst into a sudden fit of laughter, Jin leaning on Taguchi for balance as Nakamaru repeated, "Right?! Right?!" Taguchi nodded vigorously in agreement.
Kame lurched. "Must I? Can't we do this another time? They look..."
"Friendly?" Ueda supplied.
"Occupied," Kame gritted through his teeth.
"So? Just join in."
Kame pouted. "Only if you come with me."
"You are still such a clingy baby." Ueda rolled his eyes.
"At least I don't cry at the drop of a hat anymore."
"Except you did. Like three weeks ago."
"It was my favorite hat! It fell into manure. There was no way I could use it again," Kame sighed, hand moving to tug his hat down tighter.
Ueda snorted before yanking Kame over to the other three. "Hey," he said, startling the others with his sudden appearance.
"Uh. Hey," Jin greeted, one eyebrow raised. "What's going on?"
Ueda pushed Kame in front of him. "This one wants to not be hated."
The three exchanged looks before bursting into laughter. "Who hates you?" Taguchi asked, smiling brightly at Kame-to the point that Kame thought every single hurt, insecurity, worry was being melted away.
Kame blinked at them widely. "I.. None of you wanted to talk to me. I mean." Kame could feel himself shaking a little as he fidgeted with his newest hat. "You were okay with Ueda. But whenever I entered, you'd get so... awkward."
Nakamaru snorted. "Are you sure you weren't just reading into things? None of us minded you."
Jin even smiled at him. "If you're still worried about that fight from long ago, it's been forgiven and forgotten."
Kame stared at them, feeling all his emotions well up inside. He resisted from bursting into tears, although as he rubbed at his eyes, it was getting harder and harder to.
"What were you saying about growing up from being a crybaby?" Ueda groaned.
"Shut up," Kame hiccuped as he tried to hide his urge to cry more.
Nakamaru smiled at Kame. "Don't cry too much. You may ruin all that eyeliner."
"Shame," Ueda snorted.
Kame made a face at him before leaning against Ueda's shoulder, trying to muffle the tears that he'd given up hiding.
Ueda patted him on the back, sighing. "Okay then, if you must cry. Go ahead. But you're getting these clothes washed. I'm not going to have black streaks on them when we face our big bad. How embarrassing."
The other three burst into laughter, Kame joining in. None seemed to notice the dejected Koki only a few feet away.
~*~
Koki thought the old man in front of him was obviously off his rocker. "Look, old man," the already near-teenage Koki snapped as he turned the brim of his hat to the side. "I don't know what game you're playing, but I don't do that kind of crap."
The wizard stared for a few moments before launching himself at Koki, hugging him tightly. "Oh, you poor, poor child! Trying to be strong when you're obviously broken inside."
Koki struggled out of the guy's grip. "Are you joking me? I ain't broken one bit. So get your grimy cracker hands off me."
The wizard refused to release Koki and instead sighed loudly. "I'll take care of you. Teach you the magic I know you possess. Make life easier for you unfortunate soul."
"Yeah, magic," Koki scoffed, finally able to pry the wizard's tight grip off his shoulders. "If that were true, I could've done something for my family. But I couldn't and can't. So I don't have magic."
The wizard frowned. "But you do. You have immense power that must be controlled. And only I can help you." His eyes watered quickly though. "And give you the life you deserve, instead of spending it on the streets."
Koki gave him a dry look. "There's no way I'm going anywhere near you. Who knows what you'll do to me." He snorted. "Now. I'm leaving. Don't follow." He turned on his heel and promptly fainted, the wizard catching his slack body easily.
"I should've known you'd be a challenge," the man said, sighing. "But it's okay, Tanaka-kun. You'll learn better." He slung the boy’s body over his shoulder and headed towards his home, whistling all the way.
(Koki woke up screaming the next morning. "WHAT IS THIS CRAP?!" he yelled, looking up from his clothes as the wizard came running into his room.
The wizard sighed. "It's much more befitting of a lad such as yourself. Street clothes are not what wizards wear."
Koki stared, "And PAINTER CLOTHES are?!"
The wizard sighed again. "Oh, the youth of today. So corrupted.")
~*~
Koki wasn't sure anymore why he was there. He'd been brought up with a purpose: to save others, to save the people he cared about, to save himself. But he couldn't really do that when nobody liked him, wanted him, trusted him.
It hurt when he was able to watch the rest of them get along with each other. "KAT-TUN"-that's what Jin had called them when they'd first met-Koki was sure they didn't really need that second T. So he planned-planned his leaving. Planned how it would go. Planned the letter he'd leave behind.
They were all just plans though-Koki didn’t think he had the courage to leave the group. Especially when he knew what was at stake.
But being alone made everything so much more painful. And he wondered sometimes if they were just taunting him-dangling a prize in front of him that he could never get. It was like being a kid again-alone and starving for attention. And he hated it.
Koki stared at the five in front of him who were, again, joking about something or other. It'd been about a week and a half since Ueda and Kame had become buddy-buddy with the other three. Three weeks and a half since Koki had stopped talking to any of them.
He was beginning to get sick of the sound of his own voice.
Koki stopped suddenly in his tracks. Apparently the others had gotten used to the sound of him dragging his feet behind them because they all stopped and turned to face him. There wasn't malice in their eyes, nor was there caring. Just a spot in between. Koki couldn't decide which was worse-indifference or one of the extremes.
"I'm leaving," Koki blurted out. Inwardly, he flinched - his teacher would kill him for stopping something halfway. For letting any work (as little as they'd done) go to waste.
Nobody seemed to be able to talk-all stunned by his words.
Koki felt the need to continue. "I don't have a point in staying here. All of you could care less if I was here or if I wasn't. So why waste my time? I could be doing something more productive."
Nakamaru was the first to talk. "It's not like you made any effort," he said softly.
"Why try something when I know it'll fail?"
"Has that always been your motto?" Jin asked sourly. "You must not do anything new in life."
Koki threw him a dirty look. "If I'm good at something and I know I'm good at it, what's wrong with only doing that?"
"So how'd you learn magic?" Ueda asked plainly. "I doubt you were confident from the start that you could do it. Nobody could be or would be."
A beat. "Exactly," Ueda continued. "You're just afraid of being hurt. Getting close to people because you don't want them to ever leave."
Koki's heart clenched at the thought. "Shut up," he muttered. "That's not it."
"Fear can do a lot of things," Ueda continued-the others stared at him as he spoke, silent. "It can either help you move forward or keep you back. It's up to you to decide which."
Koki swallowed. "I don't have any such fear," he insisted shakily.
The group plunged into silence-like a standoff-before both Kame and Taguchi moved forward. Each with a hand stretched out.
"We'll try not to hurt you," Kame said softly. "We don't know each other well, but we're trying."
Taguchi smiled. "You should try too."
Koki swung the brim of his hat over his face, tugging it down to cover his eyes as he took the hands in front of him. "I'm holding you to this, you know." Koki muttered darkly.
Nakamaru moved to stand behind him-any previous anger that Koki'd been afraid of no longer evident as he slung his arm around Koki's shoulders. "We'll make sure that we hold true to it. And don't worry. We won't make fun of your crying. It's not as funny as when Kame does it."
"Hey!"
Jin chortled. "Who wants to make him cry again?" A chorus of "me"s went up as Kame looked around horrified.
"Traitors!" he hissed.
Jin only grinned cheekily before reaching out to pluck Kame's hat off his head, and instantly ran down the road, waving it in the air.
"NO, NOT THE HAT!" Kame cried as he dashed after Jin. "I just broke that in!"
Koki laughed hard, trying to wipe away the small drops of tears in his eyes. He'd forgotten how good it felt to laugh.
"See," Nakamaru whispered. "It's not that difficult."
Koki wanted to argue that it was that difficult, but he was just too tired to argue anymore-especially on something so senseless. "Yeah," he said instead. "I guess you're right."
Ueda threw him an amused look, and Taguchi wouldn't stop grinning. Koki was just glad he finally belonged.
~*~
Taguchi thought that the man in front of him was too young to be trusted. But he kept a smile on his face, nodding politely as the man talked on and on about how he definitely knew magic, and why anyone doubted him, he had no idea. "Aa..." Taguchi started when finally the stranger took a breath.
But it didn't last as the man went into another rant about how some people had no idea what they were talking about and how he really wished he could stick his staff up a place most people didn't like things like that to be.
Taguchi blinked innocently, confused.
The man waved his hand in the air, dismissing his own comment. He called out to the barmaid for another drink, which Taguchi got up to grab for the man - placing it onto the table in front of the man before settling back into the seat in front of him. He leaned on an elbow, looking curiously at the man.
"Why are you here, mister?" Taguchi asked, tilting his head to the side.
The man took a chug of his beer, before slamming the glass against the table. "I came here to get you!" He grinned toothily at Taguchi who blinked again, confused.
"Why?" The barmaid asked as she came to stand behind her son, cautiously.
"He has magic obviously," the wizard snorted. "You're missing out on a good thing if that boy doesn't get trained."
She eyed him warily. "I don't trust you."
"I get that a lot," he snapped. "But it doesn't make what I say untrue. And I know what I'm talking about. That boy has magic and I'm teaching him."
Taguchi swung his legs underneath the chair. "Sure!" he chirped.
His mom looked at him cautiously. "Are you sure?"
Taguchi grinned, tilting a head to the side. "What's the worse that can happen?"
The wizard grinned back. "That's the right attitude," he said before downing the rest of his drink. "Another please."
~*~
Taguchi was the most excited when they'd come to the next town. "It's my home town!" he told them as they were coming up to it.
Jin sighed, exhausted. "Taguchi. You've said that about 10 times in the last FIVE MINUTES."
"That means twice in one minute. Once every half a minute. I think we've all gotten that fact ingrained in our head," Ueda said dryly.
Taguchi bounced from one foot to the next. "I know. I know! But I haven't seen my mom since I left home. And I hope she's still healthy and the bar's still up and nothing bad's happened!"
Koki snorted. "You lived in a bar when you were young? Doesn't that explain a lot."
Nakamaru laughed as Taguchi looked at Koki in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"Nothing, nothing." Koki said, waving his hand at Taguchi. "Are we almost there at least?"
"Un!" Taguchi chimed. "We'll be able to stay at the inn there so we won't have to pay at least in one town."
"Thankfully," Kame sighed. "That last job didn't get us as much money as it should've."
Jin snorted. "Probably because all we had to do was ensure that the client's dog go to the next town safely. It was just its master being lazy to the point that she couldn't even bring her puppy back to her sister." Jin shook his head. "I thought we were powerful wizards and that's one of our assignments."
"We'll take what we can get." Nakamaru shrugged. "Better than no money at all. Especially with the amount of towns we're passing through to find this forest."
"And this map doesn't help us at all," Ueda sighed as he rolled their poorly drawn map back into his bag. "X does not mark the spot."
"You'd think a forest would be noticeable," Kame mumbled as he fiddled with his hat in his hands.
Jin cheerfully supplied, "It wouldn't be a magic forest if it was easy to find."
"Oh, oh!" Taguchi exclaimed happily, cutting into the conversation. "We're here!" The group stopped in the entrance of this town and stared at the empty town, not one person on the streets. Jin blinked. "Come on! I'll show you my family's bar!" Taguchi dashed forward, ignoring the sudden feeling of dread as the others rushed to catch up with him.
"Come on, Taguchi! Not so fast!" Koki yelled out. The others followed behind him, watching Taguchi's back until he came to a fast halt, standing in front of a broken down tavern-just like the ones they were used to. A frown was set on Taguchi's lips, a sight that the others weren't used to and they remained silent as they slowly walked through the swinging wooden door.
Inside, they heard a loud crash, shattering of glass bottles and raised voices. "You owe us money, barmaid," a loud voice yelled.
A body slammed against a door. "Get your hands off me!" a distinctly feminine voice yelled. Everyone turned to look at Taguchi, who'd turned pale, his jaw hanging open and his entire body frozen. People started to walk out of the hallway that connected the tavern to the supplies in the back.
"Hey, kids," an old man said when he saw them. "Sorry, some official business. You know how it is."
Ueda looked at him coolly before a bolt of lightning hit the floor right next to his foot, only missing the man by an inch. "Ah," he mused. "I missed."
The man stared-as did the other 8 guys who filed out of the hallway. A female came out seconds later, moving to the other side of the thugs before gasping, "Junno?"
The men turned to look at her. "As in that kid of hers?" one of the men said, panicked. "Didn't he get taken by some wizard?"
"You mean he didn't die?!" another yelped as KA-TUN pulled out their staffs; Taguchi, however, was having trouble breathing; his eyes widened in horror as he slowly backed up.
"Taguchi?" Nakamaru asked, worry in his voice. But at that moment, the thugs started to move - whether to attack or to escape didn't matter, because Jin quickly rounded them together with a circle of winds, keeping them all in the same spot.
"Ore wa joker. Dope na rhyme de nakidasu jyouchan." The ground shook underneath them before the floorboards broke under the thugs' feet, the 9 men sinking into the ground before it all stopped: the wind and the shaking and the screaming. Except Jin kept a thin wind binding the men at the middle - making sure that no man could get free.
"Now," Nakamaru said as pleasantly as he could. "You won't be bothering this establishment any further, right?"
The man he'd been talking to struggled to get out of the wind binds, and when he realized he couldn't, he spat in Nakamaru's face.
The others grimaced as Nakamaru turned to look at them, wiping away the spit with a sleeve. "Next time," he grumbled, "Kame's doing this job."
"But you're the nice one, Nakamaru!" Kame said cheekily. Nakamaru made a face at Kame, which he returned with one of his own.
Nakamaru turned around again, snapping his fingers-a small puff of a fireball hovered above his fingertips. "Now. I'll say it again." He brought the fireball closer to the man's face, the flames hot and crackling over his nose. "You won't be coming here again, right?"
"I know Kame said he's the nice one," Jin supplied helpfully, "but Nakamaru‘s got a temper."
Nakamaru frowned. "No, I don't."
"It's called bluffing," Jin huffed. "No wonder you lose at poker so much."
Beat. Shaking his head, Nakamaru brought the fire a little closer. "I didn't hear a response yet, did you?" he asked his friends.
"Nope!" Koki cheerfully replied. The man whimpered, and the others who could see stared in a mixture of horror and awe.
"Let me threaten them," Ueda asked.
"You'd kill them," Nakamaru snorted.
"Exactly." Ueda's eyes narrowed at the men, his arms crossed. The man's eyebrows shot up even higher than before.
"W-we'll s-stop! Just let us go!" the man pleaded.
Nakamaru smiled before snapping his fingers again. "Then you can go." Koki let the earth open back up, and the members moved to the side to let them pass. At the men's heels, Ueda let out tiny sparks of electricity that sent them stumbling forward, pushing each other out the door with yelps. Kame snorted, shoving Ueda whose response was only a pleased smile.
Then they focused their attention on the still frozen Taguchi, who was being cared to by his mother. "Junno. Junno," she called. "It's fine. We're safe."
Taguchi's eyes slowly came back into focus. He stared at them before taking a deep breath, plastering on a smile. "Sorry. Sorry. I... That was just really familiar. I'm... I'm going to go rest now." Before anyone could say a word, Taguchi made his way upstairs and into a room, the door shutting loudly behind him.
His mom winced before facing the members. "Thanks for rescuing my bar," she said, bowing at them.
Nakamaru shook his head, "It's no problem. But..."
"What just happened?"
They all nodded.
"The same thing happened years ago, only last time...Last time, my husband and Junno’s brother lost their lives trying to protect us. Junno was too young back then, and it seems...he's never gotten over it," she sighed again. "He can't handle pressure, but I'd hoped slightly that this magic thing would help somehow."
Ueda paused. "But he always seems to do fine."
His mom shrugged. "Maybe. But if you could help fix things with him, I'd-I’d like that. He needs his mind freed from this burden."
They exchanged looks before nodding-Taguchi'd been strong for them; they could do the same for him.
~*~
It turned out that Jin wasn't his teacher's only student. When he arrived at the house, he found another boy peeking at him from around the corner, looking younger than he was, smaller than he was, annoyingly prettier than he was. Jin stared from the doorway, blinking in confusion as the young kid moved to face him, sticking a hand out.
"Hi! I'm Yamashita~" he greeted cheerfully.
Jin could only stare at the hand-were there that many kids with magic out there? He thought he'd been at least a little special. The wizard coughed discretely before Jin finally realized he was supposed to shake the hand, which he did a second later.
Yamashita never noticed the pause, though, and took his hand happily. "So, is Takizawa-san going to be teaching you? What power do you have? I've never actually seen magic!"
Jin blinked before angling his head to look up at his teacher, who smiled gently down at him.
"This is Yamapi," Takki explained, "A kid from the neighborhood. He comes here a lot, so you'll be seeing him often."
"Un!" Yamapi supplied. "Takizawa-san is really cool! I wanna be just like him when I grow up!" He looked thoughtful for a second before continuing, "But I don't have magic, so that may be hard."
Jin suddenly found his voice. "You don't have magic?"
"Nope! But that's okay," Yamapi chirped. "I have other things I can do!" He held out his hand to Jin again. "Come on! Let me show you around!"
Jin stared at Yamapi’s hand for a moment before taking hold of it. The young boy beamed before yanking him down some hallway.
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Yamapi exclaimed happily.
Jin thought that sounded about right.
~*~
Nobody said anything related to the incident to Taguchi, around Taguchi, anywhere five feet away. For his part, Taguchi acted normally after the incident, reverting back to the smiling, cheerful and sometimes overly excited Taguchi that they knew all too well. The others tried their best to be normal, but all they could think of was Taguchi's mom's words. It proved to be more difficult when they ended up staying in his hometown for over a week-to make sure that nothing else would happen to his mom and the bar. At the end of the week, they found out that the guys who'd been demanding money had skipped town with their tails between their legs.
Soon after, the group prepared to move to the next town - as shown to them by the map.
("How the hell do new places keep popping up?" Nakamaru complained.
"It's a magical map," Jin explained. "You do not question it."
Nakamaru only rolled his eyes.)
This time, Jin had been the excited one, since it was where he was taught that was next. And as everyone knew, it also meant meeting the mysterious "Pi" that he'd been talking about.
"Pi's really dumb," Jin started. "But he can cook. He made this one dessert that looked like it was made of whipped cream, but it wasn’t, because Pi doesn't like whipped cream. And it ended up tasting like the best dessert ever. He called it the Whipped Cream."
They all made a funny face.
"I told you he wasn't smart," Jin said, responding to their looks.
Koki snorted. "Compared to you, I'm surprised there's someone worse." The members didn't even bother hiding their snickers.
Jin stuck his tongue out, prompting Koki to do the same, only better. Jin clucked his tongue before plunging into another discussion of his town. The members groaned loudly.
Once they reached their destination, the first thing Jin did was promptly drag everyone towards one of the larger buildings in the center of town. Throwing open the doors, Jin announced, "Beans has returned!"
The entire restaurant stopped what they were doing, all heads turning in his direction before a noise rose up, louder than anything they'd ever known-a combination of whoops and yells, in addition to some groans.
A head with a wide grin on its face poked out of the kitchen, and the other members were surprised to find the person looked younger than Jin.
"Bakanishi!" Yamapi exclaimed, unmistakably happy, before the two rushed towards each other. They hugged tightly before separating and doing some complicated handshake, ending with hands in the shape of half hearts pounded against their chests.
"Oh God," Koki breathed, blinking at the sight of Jin babbling happily with his friend.
"Un," Kame echoed, a twitch developing in his left eye.
"He's never going to shut up now," Ueda groaned, head in hand.
Taguchi awwed. "Let him be happy. It's been a while since he's seen him, right?"
When the other members glared at him darkly, Taguchi held his hands up in mock surrender.
"Guys!" Jin called out, turning all their attention back to him. "This is Pi! Or Yamapi as he's also known. Or Yamashita-kun if it's that girl behind the counter," Jin added with a wrinkle of his nose.
Yamapi elbowed Jin sharply. "Don't be stupid." He bowed to the others, "Nice to meet you. I hope this idiot hasn't been pulling your group down or anything."
"Ah!" Kame started when nobody said anything. "He's been an integral part of our mission." There were a few snickers behind him, but Kame fought to keep a straight face.
Yamapi only laughed. "If you say so. You'll all be staying here tonight. There are some empty rooms upstairs-Jin can lead you there." He gave Jin a snide glance. "If he doesn't get lost on the way."
Jin stuck his tongue out. "I am amazing and wizardly. It is just up a flight of stairs. Not very hard to get lost, thanks."
Yamapi laughed again, making his way back to the kitchen. "And yet you found yourself inside a broom closet, crying about how you had suddenly gotten dragged into the depths of hell."
Jin flushed as the five next to him burst out laughing. "That was when we were 17. It was the first time I'd gotten drunk. And you were the one feeding me those thoughts!"
"My mistake!" Yamapi called out from the kitchen.
Jin made a face, even though Yamapi wouldn't be able to see it, Then, he pulled the others in the directions of their rooms.
That evening, Yamapi pulled Jin aside when everyone had gone to bed. "You're working for King Johnny, right?"
Jin nodded, settling into the couch and sighing over how much he'd missed home.
"There are rumors going around as to who might be threatening the forest."
"I still don't get the point of this forest anyway," Jin complained.
Yamapi blinked then shrugged. "I can't find out everything for you."
"What's the point of coming to you for information, then?"
"Because a little information can go a long way," Yamapi said plainly.
Jin snorted. "You stole that from me."
"Who stole it from some foreigner who was passing by," Yamapi added.
"Same difference. So, who's this person?"
"Someone by the name of Nishikido Ryo," Yamapi said, looking thoughtful. "Last I heard, he's supposed to be some leader a number of towns away who, predictably, wants power."
Jin yawned. "Same old, same old. What's different this time?"
"He apparently has some wizard working for him, someone named Tegoshi."
"What?!" a voice exclaimed from the doorway. Peeking into the room were the rest of the members, but the one who'd yelled was Koki. He looked stricken. "Did you just say Tegoshi Yuya?"
"Yeah, Yuya...You know him?" Yamapi asked.
Koki exhaled. "We were taught by the same wizard. He's powerful. Really powerful. Probably more powerful than all of us combined."
Nobody had anything to say after that.
~*~
Onto Part Two
tinyangl, 12,598 words
KAT-TUN, with appearances by Johnny, Yamapi, Ryo, Tegoshi, Takki, Tsuyoshi and Yokoyama. KAT-TUN is brought together by King Johnny in order to save the kingdom, but when complete strangers meet for the first time, it's bound to not be easy.
A/N: This... started out as a joke (it kind of still is XD). Something small I wrote after seeing KAT-TUN's Lips PV and couldn't get out of my head as being a fantasy story--mainly because fantasy is my favorite genre--and thanks to anamuan's prodding, I managed to turn it into full blown fic (originally all in comments, I might add) complete with villains and mocking jokes and utter stupidity. So please don't take this seriously at all. At all. I rarely, rarely write all of KAT-TUN in one go, so hopefully the OOC is not in full force. (OOC doesn't strictly apply to just KAT-TUN, by the by.) And I may be a little forceful at the beginning with the characterization, but I hope that doesn't turn anyone off. XD This has been over a year's project so I'm just glad to finally see it done.
Thanks so much to anamuan's work on this (and everyone she asked to help as well)--without you, dear, this never would have gotten made. ♥♥
"You-tachi. Only you have the power to save the kingdom." Jaws dropped and the room dipped into an awkward silence as King Johnny stared at each one in turn. “You are all exceptionally powerful in your fields.”
"Kamenashi Kazuya with the power of fire." Kame blinked before bowing to the king, a little startled.
"Akanishi Jin with wind."
"I do my best my work," Jin said solemnly, although the others stared at him a little strangely after that.
"Taguchi Junnosuke has the power of water under his command." They gave Taguchi a side glance as the male smiled brightly, bowing at the waist.
"Tanaka Koki with the power of earth." Koki looked around, sizing everyone up as though just their outward appearance determined how powerful they were.
"Ueda Tatsuya has lightning." Ueda just stood unwavering in his gaze.
"And Nakamaru Yuichi also with the power of fire." Nakamaru nodded as his stomach dropped at the idea that there were two with the power of fire-what was the point in that?
There was a small snicker off to the side. Jin looked at the faces that were gathered in the small throne room. "Ne, ne?" he started, calling their attention to him. "You know, if we put our initials together, we'd be KAT-TUN!"
Everyone blinked at him, confused.
"It's like we're a band," he said, a little more insistent now.
Everyone ignored him and turned their attention back to King Johnny who coughed loudly.
"You-tachi. Save the magic forest from going up in flames. Oracle Koichi foresaw the event and urged me to form this in order to prevent it." Johnny boomed from his throne, the crown crooked on top of his head.
They exchanged looks-none of them knew who the other was, much less what they could each do. Koki raised an eyebrow. "We're supposed to save this place? I don't even know these people."
"Well, that's what the journey's for! Getting to know each other and working together," Taguchi proclaimed. Nobody seemed to hear him.
Koki nudged Nakamaru, asking, "What can you do?"
Nakamaru pulled out his a staff-the top in the shape of a flower-and started beat boxing; the top of his staff started to glow an orange before a fire ball hit the spot right next to Koki's feet. He stopped, looking pleased with himself before Jin said, rather nonchalantly, "That takes a lot of time, doesn't it?"
"Is that really the extent of your powers?" Koki asked, giving him a pitying look.
"I'd like to see you do better," Nakamaru retorted.
Koki grinned, pulling out a staff identical to Nakamaru's. "Ore wa Joker," he hissed before the top glowed a green and the ground underneath them started to shake for a few seconds before stopping abruptly.
"Nononono," Jin said excitedly before pulling out his own staff. "Mine's good too!" Everyone watched as he did some obscene movement with his tongue, the top of his staff glowing a darker silver than it already was. Suddenly, the wind inside the room picked up and in front of them a small tornado whirled before disintegrating into dust just as quickly as it formed.
Kame snorted beside him making Jin throw him a dirty look. Without saying a single word, he pulled out his staff and screeched loudly into it, the rest of them covering their ears to avoid hearing it. The staff glowed a more intense red than it had for Nakamaru before fire started to rain from the ceiling. He suddenly stopped; they blinked blankly at him.
"You win," Koki murmured. Taguchi nodded vigorously beside him. Kame grinned in turn, until suddenly a bolt of lightning struck a foot away from him. Instantly Kame jumped, knocking into Jin in his surprise.
A bright yellow glow on Ueda's staff told them the source and it dimmed seconds later. Ueda looked at them quietly, a small smile on his lips, while Kame rolled his eyes.
"Or not," Nakamaru said, blinking at him.
Jin stared. "You didn't even do anything!"
Ueda answered serenely, "The fairies helped me."
Only Kame snorted.
~*~
"THIS CHILD HAS MAGIC," the teacher exclaimed excitedly as he waved his staff around Jin's head. "I can sense the power in this one."
Jin's mom exchanged a look with Jin before turning incredulously, "You're serious?" She looked down again at her child. "Do you... feel like you have magic?"
Jin blinked widely, his hand wrapped tightly around her pointer finger before asking "If I say yes, does that mean I'll definitely have magic?"
The wizard blinked. "I-"
"Only if you want to."Jin's mom interrupted.
"Do I get to have a staff like that?" Jin asked, more excited this time.
"Of course!"
"Then yes!"
The wizard stared. "It doesn't work like that."
Jin's mom threw him a dirty look before crouching down to her child's eye level. "Now remember. Never use your powers for evil. And listen to your elders, but only if what they say makes sense."
Jin beamed brightly. "UN!"
~*~
Jin was sure the others thought less and less of him as they continued on their journey. Every time he opened his mouth, they'd throw him funny looks and Kame had even taken to calling him "Bakanishi" more often than not. (He knew he shouldn't have told them that story with Pi and something with variables and stuff, but it had been so quiet and Jin hated silences.)
And they were still being annoyingly quiet-Journeys were supposed to be fun! And exciting! Not strained and awkward.
"So guys!" Jin started, trying to get at least one conversation off the ground. They all gave him bored looks though, which almost made him want to give up. "What do you think we're going to get as a reward for all this? I mean, King Johnny said we'd definitely be given something for all our work." He beamed brightly. "I hope it involves food. And alcohol. And maybe women."
Kame threw him a dirty look. "The faith of the kingdom rests in our hands and you're wondering what we're getting as a reward? Where's your loyalty?"
Jin frowned, a little wounded. "Hey, I'm completely loyal! I'm here, aren't I?" He stopped in his tracks, the rest of them halting as well. A furrow settled between his eyebrows.
Nakamaru put his hand on Jin's shoulder, trying to sooth him with the action, but Jin shrugged it off.
"I could be back home, trying to make sure that Pi doesn't burn down his restaurant," Jin snapped, suddenly wishing his best friend was here.
"Pi. Pi. Pi," Koki hissed. "That's all you ever talk about."
Nakamaru's eyes went wide as he shook his head vigorously. "Come on, guys," he started. "Let's not fight."
Nobody heard him.
"He's what I know," Jin exclaimed. "I grew up with him. Is that so wrong?!"
"I grew up with Ueda, but you don't see me harping on and on about him!" Kame snapped.
"That's because he's here!" Jin shouted. "He's here." Jin’s voice tattered at the edges and Jin couldn’t find it in him to continue the words; his fists clenched at his sides.
There was a long silence before Taguchi moved, slinging an arm around Jin's shoulder and pulling him close. "We're all scared," he mused softly. "But we can rely on each other. Just you wait, Akanishi-kun."
Everyone stared - Kame and Ueda exchanged glances and the anger in Koki's face quickly died down as they watched Jin duck his head down, hands furiously rubbing against his face.
"Let's keep going,” Nakamaru sighed. “At the next town, we should find an inn. I think we need some rest." They all nodded and one by one, they started walking-Jin still pressed against Taguchi’s side.
"I still think you're an idiot," Jin mumbled to Taguchi.
Taguchi smiled. "Whatever gets you through the day."
Up ahead, Kame slowed his pace, now only a few feet away from Jin and Taguchi. He tilted his head back just enough so that the other two could see him properly. "Sorry," he muttered embarrassed, before moving back up to join Ueda at the front.
Jin stared. "That happened, right? I didn't imagine it?"
Taguchi nodded, his smile wider. "Un! See, Akanishi-kun! It's already starting!"
~*~
Nakamaru's parents looked from the wizard to their son. "This one? Are you sure it's not one of our daughters?"
Nakamaru nodded along with them, no pains in admitting that he didn't think he was one to have magic like this wizard said he did.
The wizard, for his part, looked irritated rather than enthusiastic, which had been his demeanor only 5 seconds ago. "Yes. I'm positivee. This one has the power of fire. Your daughters, as great as I'm sure you think them, have no such sign."
Nakamaru's father looked warily. "But he's so..." Nakamaru blinked innocently at his dad, his hand clutching tightly to the leg of his dad's pants. "Normal," his father sighed before leaning down to scoop Nakamaru into his arms. "It's not a bad thing."
The wizard frowned. "Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there." He stared eye to eye with the child Nakamaru. "You're meant for great things."
Nakamaru blinked. "Really?" A small smile started to grow on his face.
"Normal won't ever be the word to describe you," the wizard assured him.
Nakamaru could feel his father's grip around him tightening, but his awe overtook every other sensation. "What do I have to do?" Nakamaru asked, his voice a mixture of shy and curious. The wizard smiled.
~*~
Nakamaru thought the idea of crashing at the nearest town was the best they'd had so far. The strain between all of them had been getting too hard to handle and Nakamaru didn't know how he could fix it. When they reached the inn, they split into pairs-Kame with Ueda (predictably), Jin and Taguchi-which left Nakamaru with Koki.
Honestly, he didn't mind any of them: they seemed like nice people in their own right and all seemed to have a reason to be there. Some, though, took longer to warm up to than others. And Koki was one of them.
After Jin's explosion at the side of the road, Koki had been edgy the rest of the trek-refusing to talk to anyone, walking a small distance away from the group like he was never a part of it to begin with. And Nakamaru did try (as did Kame and Ueda and even Taguchi; Jin, however, pointedly ignored Koki), but nothing worked.
In the inn, Nakamaru crashed on top of his bed, suddenly feeling exhausted. Any thoughts and worries about the dynamics of their group and whether they would be able to do as they were asked were erased from his mind. Within seconds, he fell fast asleep.
When Nakamaru woke, the sunlight that he'd fallen asleep to had disappeared, replaced by the florescent glow of dim street lamps. Moaning, he stretched a little-feeling sorer than he was used to-and looked around the room, the light from the candle on the side table burning steadily. He supposed Koki must've lit it, except there was no sign of Koki actually in the room. Taking the candle’s stand, he moved outside of the room, trying to find his roommate.
Outside the room was a staircase leading down to the local tavern which was still filled with people-no matter the late hour Nakamaru supposed it was. Nakamaru was easily able to find Koki who was sitting down at a table along with Ueda and Kame-drinks in front of them. They seemed to be having a good conversation which brought a smile to Nakamaru's face.
He moved down the stairs, thinking he could join them when he heard his name being passed around between them. Nakamaru froze midstep, heedless as people knocked into his shoulders as they passed.
"Nakamaru's the weakest of us all!" Koki slurred. "Why would they ever choose him to be part of our group?"
Ueda faintly nodded. "It does take longer for his powers to actually show up too. He has to go through that... noise thing he does." He took a sip of whatever drink he had in front of him, looking dainty in his motions.
"You never know. Maybe he's hiding something that he has yet to demonstrate," Kame pointed out.
Koki snorted. "He seems too normal for that."
Nobody seemed to see him. Nakamaru could feel his stomach plummeting. The word echoed in his head-"normal." No matter what his teacher said-he would be stuck with that one word. Nakamaru didn't know how long he stood there until scalding hot wax spilled over the stand and onto his hand. He yelped, ignoring all sense of anything else as he blew on his hand (and the candle out) in one go.
It felt like the place had plunged into silence as Nakamaru shakily looked up, meeting Kame's eyes first of the three. The other two turned to look at Nakamaru silent-Koki’s eyes were blank. Nakamaru awkwardly laughed, "Sorry. Sorry. Just some candle wax. Don't let me bother you."
Kame started to stand up, but Nakamaru shook his head, stepping backwards with a plastered smile. He gestured for Kame to stay, and he hoped the look on his face was enough to say that he was fine. When Kame sat back down, Nakamaru figured his message was received and so, he turned to go back to his room, catching sight of Jin and Taguchi right behind him.
Jin’s face was pitying when Nakamaru reached the top step. "What?" Nakamaru said shakily. "I'm fine. Normal Maru. I'm used to it."
An arm comfortably rested itself over his shoulders and Nakamaru looked up at Taguchi. Another one snaked around his waist-Jin-and Nakamaru relaxed into their arms. "Come on, then, Normal Maru. You're staying in our room tonight and showing us how you'd normally lose a poker game," Jin joked.
Nakamaru snorted. "I can show you how I normally kick people's asses." He allowed himself to be led into Jin and Taguchi's room - relaxing into the soft banter.
They'd become a cohesive group at some point, Nakamaru thought-tonight, though, was not the right time.
~*~
Ueda stared at the scrawny kid next to the wizard. "Who's that, master?" Ueda asked, one eyebrow raised-a weird look on any kid.
The wizard sighed as Kame's hold on her leg tightened and he looked about ready to burst into tears. "Ueda-kun, I told you before not to call me master. It's not like I'm your boxing teacher." She grabbed Kame by the cuff of his shirt, effectively yanking him away from her leg. "And you. You need to stop shying away from people. Ueda-kun won't bite."
Ueda tried to grin; it was shaky at best. The wizard sighed.
"You'll be learning magic together, so I'd like it if you could get along," she said, pushing Kame towards Ueda. "Now shake hands."
Kame slowly stuck his hand out, which Ueda took squeezing. Tears quickly started to form in Kame's eyes as he tried to pull his hand away from Ueda's grip. When he finally managed to, Ueda looked thoughtful.
"Maybe you should take up boxing with me. It'll make you stronger and not as scrawny," Ueda suggested helpfully, with a little wrinkle of his nose as he looked over the younger kid. Kame appeared like he was about to burst into a fresh stream of tears.
The wizard moaned as she thought of all the work she was going to have to go through.
~*~
"You know they hate you, right?" Ueda said nonchalantly as he paged through a book. It had been about two weeks since Nakamaru had overheard their conversation and it seemed strained between those three and the remaining three. Koki couldn't remember a thing of what he'd said, and while he was confused as to what had happened-knowing he’d said/done something wrong-he kept to himself. After that, any thing Kame said seemed to bring conversations to a complete halt while Ueda slowly became friendly with the other three.
"No," Kame snapped as he eyed Ueda from under his arm. "I had no idea. Tell me more about how I'm the most hated member of the group."
Ueda shrugged. "I just thought you should know in case you were under the delusion that people actually like you."
"Ugh," Kame groaned. "Weren't you the asshole when we were kids? When'd it change?"
Ueda snorted. "I obviously taught you too well." He removed his glasses and shrugged. "You do realize you're going to have to fix this."
Kame sat up, his hands in between his legs at the edge of his bed. "At least I'm not the only one," he said childishly. "Koki's disliked as much as I am."
Ueda shrugged again. "It's not a competition, you know."
"I know," Kame sighed. "I'll try doing something about it in the morning."
The next morning, all six boys met up in front of the inn-ready for the next leg in their journey-and again, they unintentionally split into three. Nakamaru, Jin and Taguchi joked around on one side of the road while Kame and Ueda walked alongside them and Koki trailed behind them all quietly.
Ueda elbowed Kame. "Didn't you say you were going to fix it?"
Kame looked at the three warily. "I said I'd try."
"I don't even see that effort," Ueda retorted.
Nearby, the three burst into a sudden fit of laughter, Jin leaning on Taguchi for balance as Nakamaru repeated, "Right?! Right?!" Taguchi nodded vigorously in agreement.
Kame lurched. "Must I? Can't we do this another time? They look..."
"Friendly?" Ueda supplied.
"Occupied," Kame gritted through his teeth.
"So? Just join in."
Kame pouted. "Only if you come with me."
"You are still such a clingy baby." Ueda rolled his eyes.
"At least I don't cry at the drop of a hat anymore."
"Except you did. Like three weeks ago."
"It was my favorite hat! It fell into manure. There was no way I could use it again," Kame sighed, hand moving to tug his hat down tighter.
Ueda snorted before yanking Kame over to the other three. "Hey," he said, startling the others with his sudden appearance.
"Uh. Hey," Jin greeted, one eyebrow raised. "What's going on?"
Ueda pushed Kame in front of him. "This one wants to not be hated."
The three exchanged looks before bursting into laughter. "Who hates you?" Taguchi asked, smiling brightly at Kame-to the point that Kame thought every single hurt, insecurity, worry was being melted away.
Kame blinked at them widely. "I.. None of you wanted to talk to me. I mean." Kame could feel himself shaking a little as he fidgeted with his newest hat. "You were okay with Ueda. But whenever I entered, you'd get so... awkward."
Nakamaru snorted. "Are you sure you weren't just reading into things? None of us minded you."
Jin even smiled at him. "If you're still worried about that fight from long ago, it's been forgiven and forgotten."
Kame stared at them, feeling all his emotions well up inside. He resisted from bursting into tears, although as he rubbed at his eyes, it was getting harder and harder to.
"What were you saying about growing up from being a crybaby?" Ueda groaned.
"Shut up," Kame hiccuped as he tried to hide his urge to cry more.
Nakamaru smiled at Kame. "Don't cry too much. You may ruin all that eyeliner."
"Shame," Ueda snorted.
Kame made a face at him before leaning against Ueda's shoulder, trying to muffle the tears that he'd given up hiding.
Ueda patted him on the back, sighing. "Okay then, if you must cry. Go ahead. But you're getting these clothes washed. I'm not going to have black streaks on them when we face our big bad. How embarrassing."
The other three burst into laughter, Kame joining in. None seemed to notice the dejected Koki only a few feet away.
~*~
Koki thought the old man in front of him was obviously off his rocker. "Look, old man," the already near-teenage Koki snapped as he turned the brim of his hat to the side. "I don't know what game you're playing, but I don't do that kind of crap."
The wizard stared for a few moments before launching himself at Koki, hugging him tightly. "Oh, you poor, poor child! Trying to be strong when you're obviously broken inside."
Koki struggled out of the guy's grip. "Are you joking me? I ain't broken one bit. So get your grimy cracker hands off me."
The wizard refused to release Koki and instead sighed loudly. "I'll take care of you. Teach you the magic I know you possess. Make life easier for you unfortunate soul."
"Yeah, magic," Koki scoffed, finally able to pry the wizard's tight grip off his shoulders. "If that were true, I could've done something for my family. But I couldn't and can't. So I don't have magic."
The wizard frowned. "But you do. You have immense power that must be controlled. And only I can help you." His eyes watered quickly though. "And give you the life you deserve, instead of spending it on the streets."
Koki gave him a dry look. "There's no way I'm going anywhere near you. Who knows what you'll do to me." He snorted. "Now. I'm leaving. Don't follow." He turned on his heel and promptly fainted, the wizard catching his slack body easily.
"I should've known you'd be a challenge," the man said, sighing. "But it's okay, Tanaka-kun. You'll learn better." He slung the boy’s body over his shoulder and headed towards his home, whistling all the way.
(Koki woke up screaming the next morning. "WHAT IS THIS CRAP?!" he yelled, looking up from his clothes as the wizard came running into his room.
The wizard sighed. "It's much more befitting of a lad such as yourself. Street clothes are not what wizards wear."
Koki stared, "And PAINTER CLOTHES are?!"
The wizard sighed again. "Oh, the youth of today. So corrupted.")
~*~
Koki wasn't sure anymore why he was there. He'd been brought up with a purpose: to save others, to save the people he cared about, to save himself. But he couldn't really do that when nobody liked him, wanted him, trusted him.
It hurt when he was able to watch the rest of them get along with each other. "KAT-TUN"-that's what Jin had called them when they'd first met-Koki was sure they didn't really need that second T. So he planned-planned his leaving. Planned how it would go. Planned the letter he'd leave behind.
They were all just plans though-Koki didn’t think he had the courage to leave the group. Especially when he knew what was at stake.
But being alone made everything so much more painful. And he wondered sometimes if they were just taunting him-dangling a prize in front of him that he could never get. It was like being a kid again-alone and starving for attention. And he hated it.
Koki stared at the five in front of him who were, again, joking about something or other. It'd been about a week and a half since Ueda and Kame had become buddy-buddy with the other three. Three weeks and a half since Koki had stopped talking to any of them.
He was beginning to get sick of the sound of his own voice.
Koki stopped suddenly in his tracks. Apparently the others had gotten used to the sound of him dragging his feet behind them because they all stopped and turned to face him. There wasn't malice in their eyes, nor was there caring. Just a spot in between. Koki couldn't decide which was worse-indifference or one of the extremes.
"I'm leaving," Koki blurted out. Inwardly, he flinched - his teacher would kill him for stopping something halfway. For letting any work (as little as they'd done) go to waste.
Nobody seemed to be able to talk-all stunned by his words.
Koki felt the need to continue. "I don't have a point in staying here. All of you could care less if I was here or if I wasn't. So why waste my time? I could be doing something more productive."
Nakamaru was the first to talk. "It's not like you made any effort," he said softly.
"Why try something when I know it'll fail?"
"Has that always been your motto?" Jin asked sourly. "You must not do anything new in life."
Koki threw him a dirty look. "If I'm good at something and I know I'm good at it, what's wrong with only doing that?"
"So how'd you learn magic?" Ueda asked plainly. "I doubt you were confident from the start that you could do it. Nobody could be or would be."
A beat. "Exactly," Ueda continued. "You're just afraid of being hurt. Getting close to people because you don't want them to ever leave."
Koki's heart clenched at the thought. "Shut up," he muttered. "That's not it."
"Fear can do a lot of things," Ueda continued-the others stared at him as he spoke, silent. "It can either help you move forward or keep you back. It's up to you to decide which."
Koki swallowed. "I don't have any such fear," he insisted shakily.
The group plunged into silence-like a standoff-before both Kame and Taguchi moved forward. Each with a hand stretched out.
"We'll try not to hurt you," Kame said softly. "We don't know each other well, but we're trying."
Taguchi smiled. "You should try too."
Koki swung the brim of his hat over his face, tugging it down to cover his eyes as he took the hands in front of him. "I'm holding you to this, you know." Koki muttered darkly.
Nakamaru moved to stand behind him-any previous anger that Koki'd been afraid of no longer evident as he slung his arm around Koki's shoulders. "We'll make sure that we hold true to it. And don't worry. We won't make fun of your crying. It's not as funny as when Kame does it."
"Hey!"
Jin chortled. "Who wants to make him cry again?" A chorus of "me"s went up as Kame looked around horrified.
"Traitors!" he hissed.
Jin only grinned cheekily before reaching out to pluck Kame's hat off his head, and instantly ran down the road, waving it in the air.
"NO, NOT THE HAT!" Kame cried as he dashed after Jin. "I just broke that in!"
Koki laughed hard, trying to wipe away the small drops of tears in his eyes. He'd forgotten how good it felt to laugh.
"See," Nakamaru whispered. "It's not that difficult."
Koki wanted to argue that it was that difficult, but he was just too tired to argue anymore-especially on something so senseless. "Yeah," he said instead. "I guess you're right."
Ueda threw him an amused look, and Taguchi wouldn't stop grinning. Koki was just glad he finally belonged.
~*~
Taguchi thought that the man in front of him was too young to be trusted. But he kept a smile on his face, nodding politely as the man talked on and on about how he definitely knew magic, and why anyone doubted him, he had no idea. "Aa..." Taguchi started when finally the stranger took a breath.
But it didn't last as the man went into another rant about how some people had no idea what they were talking about and how he really wished he could stick his staff up a place most people didn't like things like that to be.
Taguchi blinked innocently, confused.
The man waved his hand in the air, dismissing his own comment. He called out to the barmaid for another drink, which Taguchi got up to grab for the man - placing it onto the table in front of the man before settling back into the seat in front of him. He leaned on an elbow, looking curiously at the man.
"Why are you here, mister?" Taguchi asked, tilting his head to the side.
The man took a chug of his beer, before slamming the glass against the table. "I came here to get you!" He grinned toothily at Taguchi who blinked again, confused.
"Why?" The barmaid asked as she came to stand behind her son, cautiously.
"He has magic obviously," the wizard snorted. "You're missing out on a good thing if that boy doesn't get trained."
She eyed him warily. "I don't trust you."
"I get that a lot," he snapped. "But it doesn't make what I say untrue. And I know what I'm talking about. That boy has magic and I'm teaching him."
Taguchi swung his legs underneath the chair. "Sure!" he chirped.
His mom looked at him cautiously. "Are you sure?"
Taguchi grinned, tilting a head to the side. "What's the worse that can happen?"
The wizard grinned back. "That's the right attitude," he said before downing the rest of his drink. "Another please."
~*~
Taguchi was the most excited when they'd come to the next town. "It's my home town!" he told them as they were coming up to it.
Jin sighed, exhausted. "Taguchi. You've said that about 10 times in the last FIVE MINUTES."
"That means twice in one minute. Once every half a minute. I think we've all gotten that fact ingrained in our head," Ueda said dryly.
Taguchi bounced from one foot to the next. "I know. I know! But I haven't seen my mom since I left home. And I hope she's still healthy and the bar's still up and nothing bad's happened!"
Koki snorted. "You lived in a bar when you were young? Doesn't that explain a lot."
Nakamaru laughed as Taguchi looked at Koki in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"Nothing, nothing." Koki said, waving his hand at Taguchi. "Are we almost there at least?"
"Un!" Taguchi chimed. "We'll be able to stay at the inn there so we won't have to pay at least in one town."
"Thankfully," Kame sighed. "That last job didn't get us as much money as it should've."
Jin snorted. "Probably because all we had to do was ensure that the client's dog go to the next town safely. It was just its master being lazy to the point that she couldn't even bring her puppy back to her sister." Jin shook his head. "I thought we were powerful wizards and that's one of our assignments."
"We'll take what we can get." Nakamaru shrugged. "Better than no money at all. Especially with the amount of towns we're passing through to find this forest."
"And this map doesn't help us at all," Ueda sighed as he rolled their poorly drawn map back into his bag. "X does not mark the spot."
"You'd think a forest would be noticeable," Kame mumbled as he fiddled with his hat in his hands.
Jin cheerfully supplied, "It wouldn't be a magic forest if it was easy to find."
"Oh, oh!" Taguchi exclaimed happily, cutting into the conversation. "We're here!" The group stopped in the entrance of this town and stared at the empty town, not one person on the streets. Jin blinked. "Come on! I'll show you my family's bar!" Taguchi dashed forward, ignoring the sudden feeling of dread as the others rushed to catch up with him.
"Come on, Taguchi! Not so fast!" Koki yelled out. The others followed behind him, watching Taguchi's back until he came to a fast halt, standing in front of a broken down tavern-just like the ones they were used to. A frown was set on Taguchi's lips, a sight that the others weren't used to and they remained silent as they slowly walked through the swinging wooden door.
Inside, they heard a loud crash, shattering of glass bottles and raised voices. "You owe us money, barmaid," a loud voice yelled.
A body slammed against a door. "Get your hands off me!" a distinctly feminine voice yelled. Everyone turned to look at Taguchi, who'd turned pale, his jaw hanging open and his entire body frozen. People started to walk out of the hallway that connected the tavern to the supplies in the back.
"Hey, kids," an old man said when he saw them. "Sorry, some official business. You know how it is."
Ueda looked at him coolly before a bolt of lightning hit the floor right next to his foot, only missing the man by an inch. "Ah," he mused. "I missed."
The man stared-as did the other 8 guys who filed out of the hallway. A female came out seconds later, moving to the other side of the thugs before gasping, "Junno?"
The men turned to look at her. "As in that kid of hers?" one of the men said, panicked. "Didn't he get taken by some wizard?"
"You mean he didn't die?!" another yelped as KA-TUN pulled out their staffs; Taguchi, however, was having trouble breathing; his eyes widened in horror as he slowly backed up.
"Taguchi?" Nakamaru asked, worry in his voice. But at that moment, the thugs started to move - whether to attack or to escape didn't matter, because Jin quickly rounded them together with a circle of winds, keeping them all in the same spot.
"Ore wa joker. Dope na rhyme de nakidasu jyouchan." The ground shook underneath them before the floorboards broke under the thugs' feet, the 9 men sinking into the ground before it all stopped: the wind and the shaking and the screaming. Except Jin kept a thin wind binding the men at the middle - making sure that no man could get free.
"Now," Nakamaru said as pleasantly as he could. "You won't be bothering this establishment any further, right?"
The man he'd been talking to struggled to get out of the wind binds, and when he realized he couldn't, he spat in Nakamaru's face.
The others grimaced as Nakamaru turned to look at them, wiping away the spit with a sleeve. "Next time," he grumbled, "Kame's doing this job."
"But you're the nice one, Nakamaru!" Kame said cheekily. Nakamaru made a face at Kame, which he returned with one of his own.
Nakamaru turned around again, snapping his fingers-a small puff of a fireball hovered above his fingertips. "Now. I'll say it again." He brought the fireball closer to the man's face, the flames hot and crackling over his nose. "You won't be coming here again, right?"
"I know Kame said he's the nice one," Jin supplied helpfully, "but Nakamaru‘s got a temper."
Nakamaru frowned. "No, I don't."
"It's called bluffing," Jin huffed. "No wonder you lose at poker so much."
Beat. Shaking his head, Nakamaru brought the fire a little closer. "I didn't hear a response yet, did you?" he asked his friends.
"Nope!" Koki cheerfully replied. The man whimpered, and the others who could see stared in a mixture of horror and awe.
"Let me threaten them," Ueda asked.
"You'd kill them," Nakamaru snorted.
"Exactly." Ueda's eyes narrowed at the men, his arms crossed. The man's eyebrows shot up even higher than before.
"W-we'll s-stop! Just let us go!" the man pleaded.
Nakamaru smiled before snapping his fingers again. "Then you can go." Koki let the earth open back up, and the members moved to the side to let them pass. At the men's heels, Ueda let out tiny sparks of electricity that sent them stumbling forward, pushing each other out the door with yelps. Kame snorted, shoving Ueda whose response was only a pleased smile.
Then they focused their attention on the still frozen Taguchi, who was being cared to by his mother. "Junno. Junno," she called. "It's fine. We're safe."
Taguchi's eyes slowly came back into focus. He stared at them before taking a deep breath, plastering on a smile. "Sorry. Sorry. I... That was just really familiar. I'm... I'm going to go rest now." Before anyone could say a word, Taguchi made his way upstairs and into a room, the door shutting loudly behind him.
His mom winced before facing the members. "Thanks for rescuing my bar," she said, bowing at them.
Nakamaru shook his head, "It's no problem. But..."
"What just happened?"
They all nodded.
"The same thing happened years ago, only last time...Last time, my husband and Junno’s brother lost their lives trying to protect us. Junno was too young back then, and it seems...he's never gotten over it," she sighed again. "He can't handle pressure, but I'd hoped slightly that this magic thing would help somehow."
Ueda paused. "But he always seems to do fine."
His mom shrugged. "Maybe. But if you could help fix things with him, I'd-I’d like that. He needs his mind freed from this burden."
They exchanged looks before nodding-Taguchi'd been strong for them; they could do the same for him.
~*~
It turned out that Jin wasn't his teacher's only student. When he arrived at the house, he found another boy peeking at him from around the corner, looking younger than he was, smaller than he was, annoyingly prettier than he was. Jin stared from the doorway, blinking in confusion as the young kid moved to face him, sticking a hand out.
"Hi! I'm Yamashita~" he greeted cheerfully.
Jin could only stare at the hand-were there that many kids with magic out there? He thought he'd been at least a little special. The wizard coughed discretely before Jin finally realized he was supposed to shake the hand, which he did a second later.
Yamashita never noticed the pause, though, and took his hand happily. "So, is Takizawa-san going to be teaching you? What power do you have? I've never actually seen magic!"
Jin blinked before angling his head to look up at his teacher, who smiled gently down at him.
"This is Yamapi," Takki explained, "A kid from the neighborhood. He comes here a lot, so you'll be seeing him often."
"Un!" Yamapi supplied. "Takizawa-san is really cool! I wanna be just like him when I grow up!" He looked thoughtful for a second before continuing, "But I don't have magic, so that may be hard."
Jin suddenly found his voice. "You don't have magic?"
"Nope! But that's okay," Yamapi chirped. "I have other things I can do!" He held out his hand to Jin again. "Come on! Let me show you around!"
Jin stared at Yamapi’s hand for a moment before taking hold of it. The young boy beamed before yanking him down some hallway.
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Yamapi exclaimed happily.
Jin thought that sounded about right.
~*~
Nobody said anything related to the incident to Taguchi, around Taguchi, anywhere five feet away. For his part, Taguchi acted normally after the incident, reverting back to the smiling, cheerful and sometimes overly excited Taguchi that they knew all too well. The others tried their best to be normal, but all they could think of was Taguchi's mom's words. It proved to be more difficult when they ended up staying in his hometown for over a week-to make sure that nothing else would happen to his mom and the bar. At the end of the week, they found out that the guys who'd been demanding money had skipped town with their tails between their legs.
Soon after, the group prepared to move to the next town - as shown to them by the map.
("How the hell do new places keep popping up?" Nakamaru complained.
"It's a magical map," Jin explained. "You do not question it."
Nakamaru only rolled his eyes.)
This time, Jin had been the excited one, since it was where he was taught that was next. And as everyone knew, it also meant meeting the mysterious "Pi" that he'd been talking about.
"Pi's really dumb," Jin started. "But he can cook. He made this one dessert that looked like it was made of whipped cream, but it wasn’t, because Pi doesn't like whipped cream. And it ended up tasting like the best dessert ever. He called it the Whipped Cream."
They all made a funny face.
"I told you he wasn't smart," Jin said, responding to their looks.
Koki snorted. "Compared to you, I'm surprised there's someone worse." The members didn't even bother hiding their snickers.
Jin stuck his tongue out, prompting Koki to do the same, only better. Jin clucked his tongue before plunging into another discussion of his town. The members groaned loudly.
Once they reached their destination, the first thing Jin did was promptly drag everyone towards one of the larger buildings in the center of town. Throwing open the doors, Jin announced, "Beans has returned!"
The entire restaurant stopped what they were doing, all heads turning in his direction before a noise rose up, louder than anything they'd ever known-a combination of whoops and yells, in addition to some groans.
A head with a wide grin on its face poked out of the kitchen, and the other members were surprised to find the person looked younger than Jin.
"Bakanishi!" Yamapi exclaimed, unmistakably happy, before the two rushed towards each other. They hugged tightly before separating and doing some complicated handshake, ending with hands in the shape of half hearts pounded against their chests.
"Oh God," Koki breathed, blinking at the sight of Jin babbling happily with his friend.
"Un," Kame echoed, a twitch developing in his left eye.
"He's never going to shut up now," Ueda groaned, head in hand.
Taguchi awwed. "Let him be happy. It's been a while since he's seen him, right?"
When the other members glared at him darkly, Taguchi held his hands up in mock surrender.
"Guys!" Jin called out, turning all their attention back to him. "This is Pi! Or Yamapi as he's also known. Or Yamashita-kun if it's that girl behind the counter," Jin added with a wrinkle of his nose.
Yamapi elbowed Jin sharply. "Don't be stupid." He bowed to the others, "Nice to meet you. I hope this idiot hasn't been pulling your group down or anything."
"Ah!" Kame started when nobody said anything. "He's been an integral part of our mission." There were a few snickers behind him, but Kame fought to keep a straight face.
Yamapi only laughed. "If you say so. You'll all be staying here tonight. There are some empty rooms upstairs-Jin can lead you there." He gave Jin a snide glance. "If he doesn't get lost on the way."
Jin stuck his tongue out. "I am amazing and wizardly. It is just up a flight of stairs. Not very hard to get lost, thanks."
Yamapi laughed again, making his way back to the kitchen. "And yet you found yourself inside a broom closet, crying about how you had suddenly gotten dragged into the depths of hell."
Jin flushed as the five next to him burst out laughing. "That was when we were 17. It was the first time I'd gotten drunk. And you were the one feeding me those thoughts!"
"My mistake!" Yamapi called out from the kitchen.
Jin made a face, even though Yamapi wouldn't be able to see it, Then, he pulled the others in the directions of their rooms.
That evening, Yamapi pulled Jin aside when everyone had gone to bed. "You're working for King Johnny, right?"
Jin nodded, settling into the couch and sighing over how much he'd missed home.
"There are rumors going around as to who might be threatening the forest."
"I still don't get the point of this forest anyway," Jin complained.
Yamapi blinked then shrugged. "I can't find out everything for you."
"What's the point of coming to you for information, then?"
"Because a little information can go a long way," Yamapi said plainly.
Jin snorted. "You stole that from me."
"Who stole it from some foreigner who was passing by," Yamapi added.
"Same difference. So, who's this person?"
"Someone by the name of Nishikido Ryo," Yamapi said, looking thoughtful. "Last I heard, he's supposed to be some leader a number of towns away who, predictably, wants power."
Jin yawned. "Same old, same old. What's different this time?"
"He apparently has some wizard working for him, someone named Tegoshi."
"What?!" a voice exclaimed from the doorway. Peeking into the room were the rest of the members, but the one who'd yelled was Koki. He looked stricken. "Did you just say Tegoshi Yuya?"
"Yeah, Yuya...You know him?" Yamapi asked.
Koki exhaled. "We were taught by the same wizard. He's powerful. Really powerful. Probably more powerful than all of us combined."
Nobody had anything to say after that.
~*~
Onto Part Two