[Fanfic] Concern
Title: Concern
Author/artist: moonydearest
Rating: K+?
Pairing: Could be read as RaikouxGau, or RaikouxGau friendship.
Genre: Angst/friendship
Notes/warnings: Raikou slightly OOC just because. (Because I can't write worth anything ^^;) This is a drablle.
I do rather hope this works. LJ doesn't like me too much.
The Nabari no Ou archive is so tiny, it's rather upsetting. I hope it expands. I have my contributions planned. :) This is just the first, a short and choppy oneshot I pulled together in a matter of hours (which is like seconds in my book as far as writing goes). Plot bunny came to me in a restaraunt today and I wrote the first couple of paragraphs on a napkin. (I'm dedicated man.)
This was actually meant to be short and sweet, under a thousand words, but I got carried away. Oops. And excuse the awful title. I couldn't think of anything. :);
Disclaimer: I do not own Nabari no Ou... or Yoite would be a guy and nothing else. (;snorts;)
Warning: OOC Raikou, I know, I know. Eh. /:
Concern
Raikou had been acting differently ever since Raimei resurfaced.
Although Gau knew more about Raikou than he did about himself (and probably more about Raikou than Raikou cared to know about Raikou) when the samurai got like this, it was hard to decode the locks and barriers he set like a stone fortress around himself. Blank and meditative features did not explain much to an observer.
Although Gau rarely if not never found anything about Raikou to criticize, this, perhaps, drew to the point where it grew unhealthy. Bottling up burdens made everything harder. Raikou could snap at any given moment from the pressure. Anyone smart would have kept their distance.
Gau, however, couldn’t survive a distance.
It was probably the samurai pride in him that made him like this. (Because it certainly wasn’t the Shimizu pride. He had none.) Although from a personal standpoint, Gau knew that Raikou was-was charming and compassionate (he could go on), although at times Raikou would rather that side of him not shine through.
For some reason, people seemed to think that showing emotions was a sign of peaking weakness. And although Raikou tended to ignore the common way of thinking and reason himself, this seemed to be something he believed in and lived by-if in silence. With Gau he might let his guard down, but Gau had seen him when he faced a mission or a dilemma. It was like he was a whole new person, cold and careless.
Like how he was acting now.
What was really funny, though, was what Raikou didn’t realize: by acting like he was in this case, he was showing more emotion than anything else. Anger. Frustration. Anticipation. In his cold and hardened eyes, there were many things, but composure was not one of them.
In times like these, Gau wished he could have known what Raikou was like back then. How close he was with his younger sister that her angry presence would make him so upset. How he was before the samurai’s and Kairoshuu’s ways had hardened him.
If they had. Maybe Raikou had always been this way.
“Gau-kun, are you trying to make that much noise? If Nagasaki anticipates our arrival, we lose the upperhand.”
Gau reddened as Raikou’s eyes locked onto his face, and looked down at the tree branches he sat on, clenching his hands tighter around the thick limbs that kept him from tumbling do the ground a few yards below. His uneasy shifting had apparently created something of a ruckus to Raikou’s finely tuned ears.
What could he say? Gau wasn’t exactly used to hanging on for dear life in a giant oak tree-and keeping quiet about it.
“My mistake,” he mumbled, looking down.
Raikou cracked what possibly could have been a forgiving smile if it didn’t look so pained. Without another word, he dropped his gaze back below him.
The two leered over a narrow walkway, encircled two tall brick walls. This path was the only one Nagasaki could take back to the Kairoshuu base after having leaked all of their secrets to an enemy base in exchange for generous pay.
It was Raikou’s job to remove such traitors.
Nagasaki was of a different branch of Kairoshuu, and Gau doubted he or Raikou could match the name to the face if they’d tried. Hattori had said that he’d be taking this path however, and Hattori’s words were rarely wrong in matters such as these.
Gau chewed his lower lip nervously, his eyes shooting shiftily back up to the samurai before him, who, enviously, somehow managed to rock in the tree branches without making a sound.
“Raikou-san?”
Dark eyes flashed over and met Gau’s face on, sending a chill down Gau’s spine and a question into the air. Blinking from the imaginary impact, he felt as if, if he swayed any more than he already was, he’d tumble to the ground.
Raikou raised an eyebrow, sending another wave of unease towards Gau. The swirl of emotion and butterflies forming in his stomach forced all of the traces of whatever question he was going to ask Raikou from his mind. Now he just looked stupid as he glanced down at the branch he straddled, a blush creeping over his face.
He heard the branches before him rustling. Raikou’s rocking for once made a sound, if quiet.
“I-” A few nervous chuckles escaped Gau’s lips. “What I mean is, I… I’m…” He cleared his throat, risking lifting his hand from the branch to scratch his neck nervously.
“I’m… concerned for Raikou-san.”
Another shuffling of branches suggested that Raikou was shifting again. Gau didn’t have the valor to look up, however; his mind raced as he tried to cover all of the responses Raikou could give him. Why are you concerned? or You’re being overprotective, or, possibly worst and most cold, It’s none of your business.
He took the silence as another question.
“I guess it’s pretty stupid, huh? I just-” Gau chuckled and risked an upward glance.
He was greeted by an empty branch, rustling in the wind.
“Raikou-san!” he hissed, glancing around. “Raikou-saaan?” Looking downwards, he could see through the branches a mess of pink hair.
Using a sturdy branch to lower himself onto the top of the thick brick wall, Gau had to struggle to keep his balance. Unlike some certain samurais, he was not born with impeccable balance. And harbored nothing close to it, for that matter. He clung to the thick brick wall, glad to be safe out of the tree, and tried to stay out of the scene below. He was never anything but a hindrance anyway.
Raikou slinked silently behind the dark, cloaked figure before him. Nagasaki had his hood over his head and was walking leisurely in the direction of Kairoshuu. Traitors tended to act like that for some reason-high and mighty and arrogant, you could tell just from their walk. They figured they had everything working for them. The world-or what they cared about in it, at least-in the palm of their hands. Until Raikou was set on them of course.
Years of experience and toned skill showing, Raikou closed the distance between him and Nagasaki quickly, maintaining the silence. The element of surprise, Gau knew, was important in such dealings.
Silence became unnecessary and the necessity of speed increased as Raikou, in the blink of an eye and what seemed like a cloudy blur to Gau, lunged forward, drew his sword, and thrust it threateningly in front of Nagasaki’s neck in one swift motion. Nagasaki’s surprised outcry could be heard even from where Gau sat yards away as Raikou’s other hand clenched firmly around his shoulder.
“How are you tonight, Nagasaki-san?” the samurai’s velvet voice lulled maliciously.
Gau dropped off of the brick wall, his face expressionless, to the thicket behind it. Inching his way forward, he listened intently for the sound of Raikou’s voice, but heard nothing. Closer to where the scene was laid out, Gau climbed up on the wall once more, now with a better view of the scene.
Raikou was frozen, his hands at his side and his trusty sword unsheathed and a few yards backwards on the ground, looking lifeless. Nagasaki, who had somehow wormed out of Raikou’s grip, was lunged into a fighting position, arms raised as if planned to strike at any moment.
It took a moment for Gau to realize, but he did: Nagasaki was no he, although even her first name, Teru, suggested that she was a male. No-Nagasaki was a woman. Her figure was slim and athletic, all the more obvious from the front. With her hood dropped, it was easy to see the blonde tresses that fell onto her shoulders gracefully. Her hardened eyes were narrowed in disgust and her lips tightly scowling.
“Shizumi Raikou.”
Her voice sounded familiar, but Gau couldn’t put his finger on why.
Nagasaki’s lips twisted into a smirk. “I know who you are. Hattori’s henchman. His guard dog.” She cocked her head, her eyes now smirking as well. “So high and mighty, aren’t we? Fetching things for the master?” The playfulness dropped off of her face, though, as she clenched her hands into fists. “What business do you have with me?”
Raikou remained silent; his mouth quavered and his bottom lip dropped. Gau felt the concern resurfacing.
Nagasaki cocked her head. “Hmm.” Her wordless hum in itself was condescending.
Gau thought Raikou was going insane, was sick or injured somehow or had been possessed. Why was he acting so strangely?
He mumbled something incoherent.
Nagasaki blinked. Raikou repeated his quiet plea.
“R-Raimei.”
Gau’s eyes shot open. That was why Nagasaki seemed so queer, why she seemed so familiar. The blonde hair, the bright eyes, that smirk, the voice-she could have been Raimei’s twin.
Gau opened his mouth to shout, scream anything and try to snap Raikou out of his clouded daze, but he was cut off by Nagasaki’s brutal shout.
“Your babble means nothing to me. And threatening another Kairoshuu member is traitorous. I’ll be sure to alert Hattori to it-so he can inscribe it on your grave!”
With the last word outcried, Nagasaki lunged, fists forward. There was a blur of fists and swirls of motion and punches and kicks-before he knew it, Raikou had skidded backwards, landing on his back.
Samurai instinct must have taken over-from his new position, Raikou shot for his trusty blade and was back on his feet in a matter of moments. With a new, burning inspiration, he cornered the comparably weak Nagasaki in seconds. Armed only with her hands and feet, which seemed slower now compared to the rapid speed of Raikou’s blade, she didn’t stand a chance.
Gau blinked, and Raikou had Nagasaki cornered against the brick wall, the tip of his sword poking at her throat.
There was hesitation in his eyes.
Nagasaki chuckled, wincing against the laughter-caused rise of her throat causing the blade to be buried in deeper to her flesh. Gau could barely make out her mouthing, silently: “Weakling.” He was sure that Raikou had caught it.
“Raimei,” he whispered.
Gau found himself on the ground next to Raikou. How he’d gotten there, he wasn’t quite sure.
“Raikou-san! What are you doing? This isn’t Raimei-this is Nagasaki Teru, a traitor in need of punishment.”
Raikou’s lips pressed together as he stayed silent, eyes scanning Nagasaki.
The woman against the wall gasped, breaking the silence. The word traitor must have triggered realization that she’d been caught in her treacherous actions. She quickly regained her composure, though.
“Mmm, listen to your servant, Shizumi. I’m not this ‘Raimei’ girl-your sex toy, perhaps? But I can promise you that I’m superior to her.” She cocked her head, the same smirk painted on her face daringly. Her blonde hair fell into her eyes. Nagasaki knew what she was doing in provoking Raikou.
Mercifully, Raikou didn’t seem to hear her as he clenched his jaw. He seemed to be contemplating something distant, in a spell neither Nagasaki nor Gau could penetrate.
“Raimei,” Raikou mumbled again. His clammy hands trembled as the sword dropped from his grip.
“Very good, Shizumi!” Nagasaki put her foot on top of the sword, claiming it for herself-or at least rendering it useless to Raikou.
“Now, I suppose this won’t do.” Not taking her eyes off or Raikou, Nagasaki bent down and picked up his sword. “We can’t have you two running off and telling Hattori what I’ve been up to, can we? Hmm…” She raised the sword to her eyes, examining it meticulously.
“Raikou-san! Your sword-what are you doing?” Gau shouted, desperately trying to snap Raikou out of it.
“Gau-kun…” he mumbled in response. “I can’t hurt Raimei.”
“So then,” Nagasaki chimed. “I suppose we’ll start with the servant? Shizumi, you can watch him get chopped up into mincemeat.” In the blink of an eye, Nagasaki had the blade at Gau’s neck, flung so quickly it seemed to sliced the air. Gau stumbled backwards in surprise and landed on his behind, propped up by his hands. Nagasaki closed the distance between them, apparently pleased that Gau’s position had been compromised even further.
Raikou stayed silent.
“Ah, no objections? How chivalrous,” Nagasaki sneered, and then turned back to Gau. “It’s alright to scream.” Swiftly, she raised the sword above her head, and brought it down with force.
The fraction of an inch Gau flinched backwards probably saved his life-instead of slicing his throat wide open, Raikou’s blade only made a deep but far from lethal gash on impact. Gau could not help but cry out.
“That won’t do,” Nagasaki mumbled, scowling. Again she raised the blade above her head. Gau closed his eyes tight, knowing this time she aimed to kill.
As he felt the wind around him bend with the sword’s oncoming blow, he opened his mouth to cry out once more-but the cry he heard was not his own.
“Gau-kun!” Raikou's voice.
Nagasaki’s high, female voice following his screamed out in pain and surprise. Gau’s eyes shot open.
Somehow in the brief amount of time Gau was cowering, Raikou had extracted his sword from Nagasaki’s deadly grip. As Gau tried to blink his eyes back into focus, the scene became clearer before him. Nagasaki was on the ground in the position Gau had been in moments before, with the sword Raikou held’s blade pressed to her throat.
Raikou did not miss when he aimed. The once serene, silver sword was soon stained in Nagasaki’s blood. She hadn’t even had time to scream.
The crimson flower Raikou dropped on Nagasaki’s lifeless chest reflected the color of her blood that soaked her clothes-and the dying glint of her eyes.
Raikou resheathed the sword, and wasted no time darting to Gau’s side.
“Gau-kun…”
Gau would have objected had he been given the option of getting up on his own, but Raikou didn’t. Instead he slipped his arm under Gau’s and lifted him up with the strength he’d always wielded.
On his feet, Gau felt much more dizzy.
Raikou seemed distant, unwilling to look Gau in the eye as he focused on the gash in his neck, artificially mending it with a bandage that appeared out of nowhere. His fingers felt cold and stone hard against Gau’s fleshy, clammy neck.
Surveying his work, Raikou swayed, looking as if he might tip over at any given moment. That made two of them.
He cleared his throat, looking at something over Gau’s shoulder instead of into his eyes.
“Gau-kun.”
Gau nodded, staying quiet.
“Raikou-san… I understand.”
He didn’t.
“You see… Raimei, she-her-”
“You don’t have to try to explain.”
Raikou shook his head. “Not what I was trying to say.” He rocked on his feet.
“It would seem,” Raikou ran a hand through his hair, trying and failing to look nonchalant, “That nothing can pull me out of Raimei’s trance as well as the need to save Gau-kun can.”
Gau tried to hide the fact that his eyes had widened. “Raikou… Raikou-san…” He couldn’t quite remember what he’d planned to say. He settled for the obvious. “Thank you.”
Raikou nodded and flashed that same, painful looking smile again. “Let’s go home, Gau-kun.”
Gau was already home.
He was with Raikou.
Author/artist: moonydearest
Rating: K+?
Pairing: Could be read as RaikouxGau, or RaikouxGau friendship.
Genre: Angst/friendship
Notes/warnings: Raikou slightly OOC just because. (Because I can't write worth anything ^^;) This is a drablle.
I do rather hope this works. LJ doesn't like me too much.
The Nabari no Ou archive is so tiny, it's rather upsetting. I hope it expands. I have my contributions planned. :) This is just the first, a short and choppy oneshot I pulled together in a matter of hours (which is like seconds in my book as far as writing goes). Plot bunny came to me in a restaraunt today and I wrote the first couple of paragraphs on a napkin. (I'm dedicated man.)
This was actually meant to be short and sweet, under a thousand words, but I got carried away. Oops. And excuse the awful title. I couldn't think of anything. :);
Disclaimer: I do not own Nabari no Ou... or Yoite would be a guy and nothing else. (;snorts;)
Warning: OOC Raikou, I know, I know. Eh. /:
Concern
Raikou had been acting differently ever since Raimei resurfaced.
Although Gau knew more about Raikou than he did about himself (and probably more about Raikou than Raikou cared to know about Raikou) when the samurai got like this, it was hard to decode the locks and barriers he set like a stone fortress around himself. Blank and meditative features did not explain much to an observer.
Although Gau rarely if not never found anything about Raikou to criticize, this, perhaps, drew to the point where it grew unhealthy. Bottling up burdens made everything harder. Raikou could snap at any given moment from the pressure. Anyone smart would have kept their distance.
Gau, however, couldn’t survive a distance.
It was probably the samurai pride in him that made him like this. (Because it certainly wasn’t the Shimizu pride. He had none.) Although from a personal standpoint, Gau knew that Raikou was-was charming and compassionate (he could go on), although at times Raikou would rather that side of him not shine through.
For some reason, people seemed to think that showing emotions was a sign of peaking weakness. And although Raikou tended to ignore the common way of thinking and reason himself, this seemed to be something he believed in and lived by-if in silence. With Gau he might let his guard down, but Gau had seen him when he faced a mission or a dilemma. It was like he was a whole new person, cold and careless.
Like how he was acting now.
What was really funny, though, was what Raikou didn’t realize: by acting like he was in this case, he was showing more emotion than anything else. Anger. Frustration. Anticipation. In his cold and hardened eyes, there were many things, but composure was not one of them.
In times like these, Gau wished he could have known what Raikou was like back then. How close he was with his younger sister that her angry presence would make him so upset. How he was before the samurai’s and Kairoshuu’s ways had hardened him.
If they had. Maybe Raikou had always been this way.
“Gau-kun, are you trying to make that much noise? If Nagasaki anticipates our arrival, we lose the upperhand.”
Gau reddened as Raikou’s eyes locked onto his face, and looked down at the tree branches he sat on, clenching his hands tighter around the thick limbs that kept him from tumbling do the ground a few yards below. His uneasy shifting had apparently created something of a ruckus to Raikou’s finely tuned ears.
What could he say? Gau wasn’t exactly used to hanging on for dear life in a giant oak tree-and keeping quiet about it.
“My mistake,” he mumbled, looking down.
Raikou cracked what possibly could have been a forgiving smile if it didn’t look so pained. Without another word, he dropped his gaze back below him.
The two leered over a narrow walkway, encircled two tall brick walls. This path was the only one Nagasaki could take back to the Kairoshuu base after having leaked all of their secrets to an enemy base in exchange for generous pay.
It was Raikou’s job to remove such traitors.
Nagasaki was of a different branch of Kairoshuu, and Gau doubted he or Raikou could match the name to the face if they’d tried. Hattori had said that he’d be taking this path however, and Hattori’s words were rarely wrong in matters such as these.
Gau chewed his lower lip nervously, his eyes shooting shiftily back up to the samurai before him, who, enviously, somehow managed to rock in the tree branches without making a sound.
“Raikou-san?”
Dark eyes flashed over and met Gau’s face on, sending a chill down Gau’s spine and a question into the air. Blinking from the imaginary impact, he felt as if, if he swayed any more than he already was, he’d tumble to the ground.
Raikou raised an eyebrow, sending another wave of unease towards Gau. The swirl of emotion and butterflies forming in his stomach forced all of the traces of whatever question he was going to ask Raikou from his mind. Now he just looked stupid as he glanced down at the branch he straddled, a blush creeping over his face.
He heard the branches before him rustling. Raikou’s rocking for once made a sound, if quiet.
“I-” A few nervous chuckles escaped Gau’s lips. “What I mean is, I… I’m…” He cleared his throat, risking lifting his hand from the branch to scratch his neck nervously.
“I’m… concerned for Raikou-san.”
Another shuffling of branches suggested that Raikou was shifting again. Gau didn’t have the valor to look up, however; his mind raced as he tried to cover all of the responses Raikou could give him. Why are you concerned? or You’re being overprotective, or, possibly worst and most cold, It’s none of your business.
He took the silence as another question.
“I guess it’s pretty stupid, huh? I just-” Gau chuckled and risked an upward glance.
He was greeted by an empty branch, rustling in the wind.
“Raikou-san!” he hissed, glancing around. “Raikou-saaan?” Looking downwards, he could see through the branches a mess of pink hair.
Using a sturdy branch to lower himself onto the top of the thick brick wall, Gau had to struggle to keep his balance. Unlike some certain samurais, he was not born with impeccable balance. And harbored nothing close to it, for that matter. He clung to the thick brick wall, glad to be safe out of the tree, and tried to stay out of the scene below. He was never anything but a hindrance anyway.
Raikou slinked silently behind the dark, cloaked figure before him. Nagasaki had his hood over his head and was walking leisurely in the direction of Kairoshuu. Traitors tended to act like that for some reason-high and mighty and arrogant, you could tell just from their walk. They figured they had everything working for them. The world-or what they cared about in it, at least-in the palm of their hands. Until Raikou was set on them of course.
Years of experience and toned skill showing, Raikou closed the distance between him and Nagasaki quickly, maintaining the silence. The element of surprise, Gau knew, was important in such dealings.
Silence became unnecessary and the necessity of speed increased as Raikou, in the blink of an eye and what seemed like a cloudy blur to Gau, lunged forward, drew his sword, and thrust it threateningly in front of Nagasaki’s neck in one swift motion. Nagasaki’s surprised outcry could be heard even from where Gau sat yards away as Raikou’s other hand clenched firmly around his shoulder.
“How are you tonight, Nagasaki-san?” the samurai’s velvet voice lulled maliciously.
Gau dropped off of the brick wall, his face expressionless, to the thicket behind it. Inching his way forward, he listened intently for the sound of Raikou’s voice, but heard nothing. Closer to where the scene was laid out, Gau climbed up on the wall once more, now with a better view of the scene.
Raikou was frozen, his hands at his side and his trusty sword unsheathed and a few yards backwards on the ground, looking lifeless. Nagasaki, who had somehow wormed out of Raikou’s grip, was lunged into a fighting position, arms raised as if planned to strike at any moment.
It took a moment for Gau to realize, but he did: Nagasaki was no he, although even her first name, Teru, suggested that she was a male. No-Nagasaki was a woman. Her figure was slim and athletic, all the more obvious from the front. With her hood dropped, it was easy to see the blonde tresses that fell onto her shoulders gracefully. Her hardened eyes were narrowed in disgust and her lips tightly scowling.
“Shizumi Raikou.”
Her voice sounded familiar, but Gau couldn’t put his finger on why.
Nagasaki’s lips twisted into a smirk. “I know who you are. Hattori’s henchman. His guard dog.” She cocked her head, her eyes now smirking as well. “So high and mighty, aren’t we? Fetching things for the master?” The playfulness dropped off of her face, though, as she clenched her hands into fists. “What business do you have with me?”
Raikou remained silent; his mouth quavered and his bottom lip dropped. Gau felt the concern resurfacing.
Nagasaki cocked her head. “Hmm.” Her wordless hum in itself was condescending.
Gau thought Raikou was going insane, was sick or injured somehow or had been possessed. Why was he acting so strangely?
He mumbled something incoherent.
Nagasaki blinked. Raikou repeated his quiet plea.
“R-Raimei.”
Gau’s eyes shot open. That was why Nagasaki seemed so queer, why she seemed so familiar. The blonde hair, the bright eyes, that smirk, the voice-she could have been Raimei’s twin.
Gau opened his mouth to shout, scream anything and try to snap Raikou out of his clouded daze, but he was cut off by Nagasaki’s brutal shout.
“Your babble means nothing to me. And threatening another Kairoshuu member is traitorous. I’ll be sure to alert Hattori to it-so he can inscribe it on your grave!”
With the last word outcried, Nagasaki lunged, fists forward. There was a blur of fists and swirls of motion and punches and kicks-before he knew it, Raikou had skidded backwards, landing on his back.
Samurai instinct must have taken over-from his new position, Raikou shot for his trusty blade and was back on his feet in a matter of moments. With a new, burning inspiration, he cornered the comparably weak Nagasaki in seconds. Armed only with her hands and feet, which seemed slower now compared to the rapid speed of Raikou’s blade, she didn’t stand a chance.
Gau blinked, and Raikou had Nagasaki cornered against the brick wall, the tip of his sword poking at her throat.
There was hesitation in his eyes.
Nagasaki chuckled, wincing against the laughter-caused rise of her throat causing the blade to be buried in deeper to her flesh. Gau could barely make out her mouthing, silently: “Weakling.” He was sure that Raikou had caught it.
“Raimei,” he whispered.
Gau found himself on the ground next to Raikou. How he’d gotten there, he wasn’t quite sure.
“Raikou-san! What are you doing? This isn’t Raimei-this is Nagasaki Teru, a traitor in need of punishment.”
Raikou’s lips pressed together as he stayed silent, eyes scanning Nagasaki.
The woman against the wall gasped, breaking the silence. The word traitor must have triggered realization that she’d been caught in her treacherous actions. She quickly regained her composure, though.
“Mmm, listen to your servant, Shizumi. I’m not this ‘Raimei’ girl-your sex toy, perhaps? But I can promise you that I’m superior to her.” She cocked her head, the same smirk painted on her face daringly. Her blonde hair fell into her eyes. Nagasaki knew what she was doing in provoking Raikou.
Mercifully, Raikou didn’t seem to hear her as he clenched his jaw. He seemed to be contemplating something distant, in a spell neither Nagasaki nor Gau could penetrate.
“Raimei,” Raikou mumbled again. His clammy hands trembled as the sword dropped from his grip.
“Very good, Shizumi!” Nagasaki put her foot on top of the sword, claiming it for herself-or at least rendering it useless to Raikou.
“Now, I suppose this won’t do.” Not taking her eyes off or Raikou, Nagasaki bent down and picked up his sword. “We can’t have you two running off and telling Hattori what I’ve been up to, can we? Hmm…” She raised the sword to her eyes, examining it meticulously.
“Raikou-san! Your sword-what are you doing?” Gau shouted, desperately trying to snap Raikou out of it.
“Gau-kun…” he mumbled in response. “I can’t hurt Raimei.”
“So then,” Nagasaki chimed. “I suppose we’ll start with the servant? Shizumi, you can watch him get chopped up into mincemeat.” In the blink of an eye, Nagasaki had the blade at Gau’s neck, flung so quickly it seemed to sliced the air. Gau stumbled backwards in surprise and landed on his behind, propped up by his hands. Nagasaki closed the distance between them, apparently pleased that Gau’s position had been compromised even further.
Raikou stayed silent.
“Ah, no objections? How chivalrous,” Nagasaki sneered, and then turned back to Gau. “It’s alright to scream.” Swiftly, she raised the sword above her head, and brought it down with force.
The fraction of an inch Gau flinched backwards probably saved his life-instead of slicing his throat wide open, Raikou’s blade only made a deep but far from lethal gash on impact. Gau could not help but cry out.
“That won’t do,” Nagasaki mumbled, scowling. Again she raised the blade above her head. Gau closed his eyes tight, knowing this time she aimed to kill.
As he felt the wind around him bend with the sword’s oncoming blow, he opened his mouth to cry out once more-but the cry he heard was not his own.
“Gau-kun!” Raikou's voice.
Nagasaki’s high, female voice following his screamed out in pain and surprise. Gau’s eyes shot open.
Somehow in the brief amount of time Gau was cowering, Raikou had extracted his sword from Nagasaki’s deadly grip. As Gau tried to blink his eyes back into focus, the scene became clearer before him. Nagasaki was on the ground in the position Gau had been in moments before, with the sword Raikou held’s blade pressed to her throat.
Raikou did not miss when he aimed. The once serene, silver sword was soon stained in Nagasaki’s blood. She hadn’t even had time to scream.
The crimson flower Raikou dropped on Nagasaki’s lifeless chest reflected the color of her blood that soaked her clothes-and the dying glint of her eyes.
Raikou resheathed the sword, and wasted no time darting to Gau’s side.
“Gau-kun…”
Gau would have objected had he been given the option of getting up on his own, but Raikou didn’t. Instead he slipped his arm under Gau’s and lifted him up with the strength he’d always wielded.
On his feet, Gau felt much more dizzy.
Raikou seemed distant, unwilling to look Gau in the eye as he focused on the gash in his neck, artificially mending it with a bandage that appeared out of nowhere. His fingers felt cold and stone hard against Gau’s fleshy, clammy neck.
Surveying his work, Raikou swayed, looking as if he might tip over at any given moment. That made two of them.
He cleared his throat, looking at something over Gau’s shoulder instead of into his eyes.
“Gau-kun.”
Gau nodded, staying quiet.
“Raikou-san… I understand.”
He didn’t.
“You see… Raimei, she-her-”
“You don’t have to try to explain.”
Raikou shook his head. “Not what I was trying to say.” He rocked on his feet.
“It would seem,” Raikou ran a hand through his hair, trying and failing to look nonchalant, “That nothing can pull me out of Raimei’s trance as well as the need to save Gau-kun can.”
Gau tried to hide the fact that his eyes had widened. “Raikou… Raikou-san…” He couldn’t quite remember what he’d planned to say. He settled for the obvious. “Thank you.”
Raikou nodded and flashed that same, painful looking smile again. “Let’s go home, Gau-kun.”
Gau was already home.
He was with Raikou.