The Shadows We Bear [Part I / ???]
So today is going to be the day where 'KB fails and will go spam inktrain with her decidedly lameass work'. Because I am a retard and fail a lot and got self-topped to write this somewhat (short) epic fic in the works.
Basic premise for those who do not know: this fic is set the the world of theskytides, an AU panfandom RPG set in a steampunk line in which it is totally a fandom of its own. Miles Edgeworth (from the Ace Attorney series) and Hijikata Toshirou (from Gintama) happen to be the first mate / boatswain respectively in of one of the ships in the game. In this story, Hijikata has something of a... crush towards Edgeworth that he has never told anyone, though he is aware. Which of course, will only lead to nothing but trouble...
Parts: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI
THE SHADOWS WE BEAR
TST!Shadowverse fic : Part I
Thump.
The sound of something heavy falling painfully onto the ground, followed by smacks as hands was pinned down to the floor by another’s wrists. The clank of metal against what wood echoed around the area as sword-now unused and unnecessary-clattered unto the floor loudly away from the one who had been trying to reach out for it. His fingers flexed mindlessly even as his hands were rendered immobile due to the other set of hands that were pinning him down by his wrists. Said fingers-calloused and rough-only tightened their grip as he continued to struggle until with enough strength to send a jolt of pain through him and cut off the bloodlines, making them numb.
“It’s useless to struggle, you know,” came the voice of the one above him, the tone of its voice warped and distorted, a mockery of what it was supposed to be. Of who it was supposed to be.
Hijikata only gritted his teeth, dark eyes flashing even in the dim lighting of the place as he glared at the... thing that was holding him down. “Let me go, you asshole!”
The other only looked at him with an expression of amusement that the boatswain could only find all-too familiar, even as the smile on his lips grew thin and twisted into something else altogether. “Ooooh, but why should I? I find this position so very comfortable.”
Comfortable for you, that is, the samurai shot back mentally, though he didn’t voice it aloud. Instead he only continued to glare at the thing on him with all the rage he could muster and repeated himself with an eerie calm. “Let. Me. Go.”
The smirk on the other’s face only widened at that. “No.”
“You bastard-” Hijikata started once again, but then stopped abruptly when the thing just lowered itself closer towards him, freezing entirely. At this distance, he could smell the scent that registered in his mind as him, and even as every part of himself was telling him that that thing upon him was him, the boatswain knew that it wasn’t. He wasn’t him at all. Even with all the similarities on the outside... it wasn’t him at all.
The thing cocked its head to the side, looking back at him with clear amusement at his actions. “Your heart’s beating faster,” it noted with a disgusting amount of cheer in its voice.
“Get off me, you bastard,” was all that the dark-haired man snarled back in return.
A chuckle at that. “And what if I don’t?”
“I’ll kill you.”
This time, the thing only laughed, laughing with mirth and glee and some twisted amusement that only made the man’s stomach clench in all the wrong places. Still, he only stayed silent through the whole time that the thing was laughing, his jaw clenched and his eyes glaring stubbornly up at it.
“Oh, but Toshirou,” it spoke once the laughter finally died down, its (familiar) eyes sparkling with some form of sick, twisted delight. “Don’t you remember? You just tried that, and look where it got you.” And then it only tightened the grip on his wrists further, this time with more than enough strength to cause Hijikata to let out a cry at the pain that jolted through him.
The thing then smiled-a smile that wasn’t his, a smile that he would never have-and leaned down even closer, twisting its head so that its lips were just above his earlobe. It took every single bit of willpower within him to stop himself from physically responding to the sudden closeness between them.
There was a breathy laugh that might have sent shivers down his spine on another occasion, and then a whisper into his ear.
“After all, you can’t really kill the one you’d much rather screw around with, right?”
Seventy-three minutes ago...
It was a bit unrealistic to be honest, to suddenly be in such a place that would otherwise have not existed in Reial at all. But still, here he was despite the fact that he had been warned countless times by the Seta and Hanamura kid that it was better for him to stay out of this. He couldn’t just allow Edgeworth to be in danger like this while he was made to stay in the sidelines; he just couldn’t. He would not allow himself to go through that state of helplessness again-this time when there was a chance to save him, he would damned well take it.
So he was here, in this strange ship that had appeared from almost nowhere with the two teenagers. The boatswain gulped quietly as he tightened the hold on his sword, trying his best to look through the fog that was enshrouding the area. He didn’t have those glasses that the other two had, but he could make do without them-despite the time that had already passed, he wasn’t called the Demon of Solare for nothing. If his sight was gone, then he’d just make it up with his other senses.
The Seta kid in front of him took a moment to glance back at him, the glasses glinting oddly as he did so. Hijikata only steeled himself and nodded-this was it, now or never. No matter what, he had to rescue Edgeworth from this place. He had to do it, or he would never be able to live with himself.
Around them, the disported, warped version of his voice only mocked them and chided them for wasting their time on such a useless endeavour (So you’ve come? I suppose I must applaud you, but all you’re doing is simply wasting your time. There’s no use in trying to save someone who pathetic and useless). Biting down on his tongue to stop himself for snapping back at it, the boatswain only raised his sword and readied himself for what was to come. By hook or by crook, the silver-haired man was going to come back with them, with him. And there was going to be no other way around it.
There was a pause as the two teenagers in front of him turned to look at each other and nodded before the silver-haired kid turned back to look at him once more.“Ready?”
“More than I’ll ever be,” the samurai muttered back in return, eyeing the fog swirling around them and tensing up at the oppressing feeling that was constantly pushing him within. What was up with this strange weather, anyway? The fact that he was on a floating boat was already strange enough-the fog was making everything so much more complicated and messed up.
Then again, everything about this whole situation was complicated and messed up.
Seta only looked at him for a while before finally nodding. “Alright. Just stay close to Yosuke and me and you should be fine.”
It took quite a bit on Hijikata’s part to prevent himself from snapping back at the teenager (who did he think he was anyway, commanding him like that?). “You’ve told me that already.”
The lips on the kid’s face grew thin. “I needed to make sure.”
This time, the boatswain did snap. “I can handle myself, damnit. Let’s just go before anything happens.”
“...alright,” the teenager finally gave in and turned back to nod at his other companion-the Hanamura kid-who nodded back after shooting a somewhat rueful glance at him and then they finally started to move, walking deeper and into the fog. Hijikata wasted no time in following them both, footsteps echoing in the musty silence as he walked, sword held tight in his hand.
As they walked, the boatswain only glanced around his surroundings, trying to see what he could use to his advantage-which, notably, wasn’t many. Even with the fog, he could make out most of the details pretty easily after a few twists and turns around the area. They had entered into the lower decks of the ship, and while the looks were everything what a ship should be, the fact that there were so many twists and turns and seriously long corridors made the man wonder if they were even in a ship in the first place. Everything just suddenly seemed so... huge. It was kind of... disturbing, to be honest. But even so, he couldn’t let something like that make him falter.
It was around the fourteenth turn (he was counting) did the Seta kid stop them abruptly, and Hijikata almost lost his footing thanks to that.
“What are you-”
“Quiet. It might hear us.”
Unsurprisingly, Hijikata only followed that up with a “What?” and the teenager only signalled him to look over the corner. The boatswain did as was told-and then froze in shock at the sight he saw before him.
It was a... a thing. Well, more than just a thing. But there really were no words that the samurai could use to properly describe what he was seeing there and then. It only looked vaguely human, but it was on the ground and crawling about with only its arms-anything below the waist was gone. He couldn’t see the hands with the fog, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t anything pretty at all if those twisted-looking arms were of any indication. It looked as if the arms had been cut off and dried and twisted up with other arms before being reattached again. The head itself was something like a human’s, but it only had a few strands of hair and most of its face was wrapped up in bandages; all that could be seen was a sole eye that glowed a sickening yellow in the mist and fog.
The Hanamura kid was the one who spoke up this time. “So what do you wanna do now, partner?”
Seta took a moment to glance around them, frowning. It didn’t take a genius to know why either-even Hijikata knew there was no way for them to avoid the encounter. They needed to fight it in order to move forward.
The boatswain decided that it was his turn to speak out now. “Do we fight?”
A pause after that question as the silver-haired teenager only glanced around once more before letting out a quiet sigh. “There’s not much of a choice in the matter.”
“Want me to do it?” offered the other teenager from beside him, and Hijikata only looked in slight disbelief at the brunette. He was going to fight that thing? Was the kid crazy? Did he even have-the knives. He guess he couldn’t say anything then.
Seta looked at his companion for a while after that, but eventually closed his eyes and nodded. “Just be careful.”
Hanamura only grinned. “You can count on me, partner.” Saying that, he made his way around the corner, knives in hand as the other two watched from where they were. The boatswain himself felt quite not at ease as he watched the other approaching towards the monstrosity that was crawling about on the floor. He wasn’t exactly doubting anything about the teenagers (since after all, they did know about this whole thing more than he did), but looking between the thing and the kid he really couldn’t be very sure...
“He’ll be fine,” came the voice of the silver-haired teen beside him, as if he had heard what the officer had been thinking. Hijikata only looked towards him at that, a perplexed look on his face that only grew as the teen only smiled slightly. “You don’t have to worry.”
Easy enough for you to say, the dark-haired man thought to himself just as a cry of ‘Persona!’ registered into his mind, followed by the sound of what was seemingly the noise of shattering glass. The boatswain turned back just in time to see a figure that only reminded him of something like a... disco ninja frog hovering over the Hanamura kid. There really was no other appropriate phrase for him to describe what it was besides that. A pause, and then the new figure twisted around before suddenly-
-a howl of unforgiving wind and a loud WOOSH, and then the thing was upside down twitching and jerking around. The brunette dashed forward once the wind died down, knives at the ready before he twirled around and brought the blades down to slash across the creature. There was a loud, high-pitched screech as the attack did its damage, and the thing thrashed about the floor violently before it suddenly turned into a patch of blood-tinted black smoke and vanished into thin air.
The both of them caught up to the other once the beast had been dealt with, the brunette waiting for them with a small grin.
“See, told you I could do it!”
“Good work,” the other teenager responded with a small smile.
“...what was that about?” Hijikata couldn’t help but finally ask.
Seta looked towards him at the question, a strange glimmer in his eyes as he answered his question. “It’s called a Persona-what we use to fight. It’s something of a... facade of determination that one wears in order to go though the hardships of life. Or something like that, anyway.”
The boatswain stared. “Sounds like something out of a comic book.”
“You think so?” the silver-haired teenager retuned, laughing quietly despite himself for a moment before smiling most mysteriously. “Maybe it is.”
...Hijikata didn’t really know what else he could say to that.
Basic premise for those who do not know: this fic is set the the world of theskytides, an AU panfandom RPG set in a steampunk line in which it is totally a fandom of its own. Miles Edgeworth (from the Ace Attorney series) and Hijikata Toshirou (from Gintama) happen to be the first mate / boatswain respectively in of one of the ships in the game. In this story, Hijikata has something of a... crush towards Edgeworth that he has never told anyone, though he is aware. Which of course, will only lead to nothing but trouble...
Parts: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI
THE SHADOWS WE BEAR
TST!Shadowverse fic : Part I
Thump.
The sound of something heavy falling painfully onto the ground, followed by smacks as hands was pinned down to the floor by another’s wrists. The clank of metal against what wood echoed around the area as sword-now unused and unnecessary-clattered unto the floor loudly away from the one who had been trying to reach out for it. His fingers flexed mindlessly even as his hands were rendered immobile due to the other set of hands that were pinning him down by his wrists. Said fingers-calloused and rough-only tightened their grip as he continued to struggle until with enough strength to send a jolt of pain through him and cut off the bloodlines, making them numb.
“It’s useless to struggle, you know,” came the voice of the one above him, the tone of its voice warped and distorted, a mockery of what it was supposed to be. Of who it was supposed to be.
Hijikata only gritted his teeth, dark eyes flashing even in the dim lighting of the place as he glared at the... thing that was holding him down. “Let me go, you asshole!”
The other only looked at him with an expression of amusement that the boatswain could only find all-too familiar, even as the smile on his lips grew thin and twisted into something else altogether. “Ooooh, but why should I? I find this position so very comfortable.”
Comfortable for you, that is, the samurai shot back mentally, though he didn’t voice it aloud. Instead he only continued to glare at the thing on him with all the rage he could muster and repeated himself with an eerie calm. “Let. Me. Go.”
The smirk on the other’s face only widened at that. “No.”
“You bastard-” Hijikata started once again, but then stopped abruptly when the thing just lowered itself closer towards him, freezing entirely. At this distance, he could smell the scent that registered in his mind as him, and even as every part of himself was telling him that that thing upon him was him, the boatswain knew that it wasn’t. He wasn’t him at all. Even with all the similarities on the outside... it wasn’t him at all.
The thing cocked its head to the side, looking back at him with clear amusement at his actions. “Your heart’s beating faster,” it noted with a disgusting amount of cheer in its voice.
“Get off me, you bastard,” was all that the dark-haired man snarled back in return.
A chuckle at that. “And what if I don’t?”
“I’ll kill you.”
This time, the thing only laughed, laughing with mirth and glee and some twisted amusement that only made the man’s stomach clench in all the wrong places. Still, he only stayed silent through the whole time that the thing was laughing, his jaw clenched and his eyes glaring stubbornly up at it.
“Oh, but Toshirou,” it spoke once the laughter finally died down, its (familiar) eyes sparkling with some form of sick, twisted delight. “Don’t you remember? You just tried that, and look where it got you.” And then it only tightened the grip on his wrists further, this time with more than enough strength to cause Hijikata to let out a cry at the pain that jolted through him.
The thing then smiled-a smile that wasn’t his, a smile that he would never have-and leaned down even closer, twisting its head so that its lips were just above his earlobe. It took every single bit of willpower within him to stop himself from physically responding to the sudden closeness between them.
There was a breathy laugh that might have sent shivers down his spine on another occasion, and then a whisper into his ear.
“After all, you can’t really kill the one you’d much rather screw around with, right?”
Seventy-three minutes ago...
It was a bit unrealistic to be honest, to suddenly be in such a place that would otherwise have not existed in Reial at all. But still, here he was despite the fact that he had been warned countless times by the Seta and Hanamura kid that it was better for him to stay out of this. He couldn’t just allow Edgeworth to be in danger like this while he was made to stay in the sidelines; he just couldn’t. He would not allow himself to go through that state of helplessness again-this time when there was a chance to save him, he would damned well take it.
So he was here, in this strange ship that had appeared from almost nowhere with the two teenagers. The boatswain gulped quietly as he tightened the hold on his sword, trying his best to look through the fog that was enshrouding the area. He didn’t have those glasses that the other two had, but he could make do without them-despite the time that had already passed, he wasn’t called the Demon of Solare for nothing. If his sight was gone, then he’d just make it up with his other senses.
The Seta kid in front of him took a moment to glance back at him, the glasses glinting oddly as he did so. Hijikata only steeled himself and nodded-this was it, now or never. No matter what, he had to rescue Edgeworth from this place. He had to do it, or he would never be able to live with himself.
Around them, the disported, warped version of his voice only mocked them and chided them for wasting their time on such a useless endeavour (So you’ve come? I suppose I must applaud you, but all you’re doing is simply wasting your time. There’s no use in trying to save someone who pathetic and useless). Biting down on his tongue to stop himself for snapping back at it, the boatswain only raised his sword and readied himself for what was to come. By hook or by crook, the silver-haired man was going to come back with them, with him. And there was going to be no other way around it.
There was a pause as the two teenagers in front of him turned to look at each other and nodded before the silver-haired kid turned back to look at him once more.“Ready?”
“More than I’ll ever be,” the samurai muttered back in return, eyeing the fog swirling around them and tensing up at the oppressing feeling that was constantly pushing him within. What was up with this strange weather, anyway? The fact that he was on a floating boat was already strange enough-the fog was making everything so much more complicated and messed up.
Then again, everything about this whole situation was complicated and messed up.
Seta only looked at him for a while before finally nodding. “Alright. Just stay close to Yosuke and me and you should be fine.”
It took quite a bit on Hijikata’s part to prevent himself from snapping back at the teenager (who did he think he was anyway, commanding him like that?). “You’ve told me that already.”
The lips on the kid’s face grew thin. “I needed to make sure.”
This time, the boatswain did snap. “I can handle myself, damnit. Let’s just go before anything happens.”
“...alright,” the teenager finally gave in and turned back to nod at his other companion-the Hanamura kid-who nodded back after shooting a somewhat rueful glance at him and then they finally started to move, walking deeper and into the fog. Hijikata wasted no time in following them both, footsteps echoing in the musty silence as he walked, sword held tight in his hand.
As they walked, the boatswain only glanced around his surroundings, trying to see what he could use to his advantage-which, notably, wasn’t many. Even with the fog, he could make out most of the details pretty easily after a few twists and turns around the area. They had entered into the lower decks of the ship, and while the looks were everything what a ship should be, the fact that there were so many twists and turns and seriously long corridors made the man wonder if they were even in a ship in the first place. Everything just suddenly seemed so... huge. It was kind of... disturbing, to be honest. But even so, he couldn’t let something like that make him falter.
It was around the fourteenth turn (he was counting) did the Seta kid stop them abruptly, and Hijikata almost lost his footing thanks to that.
“What are you-”
“Quiet. It might hear us.”
Unsurprisingly, Hijikata only followed that up with a “What?” and the teenager only signalled him to look over the corner. The boatswain did as was told-and then froze in shock at the sight he saw before him.
It was a... a thing. Well, more than just a thing. But there really were no words that the samurai could use to properly describe what he was seeing there and then. It only looked vaguely human, but it was on the ground and crawling about with only its arms-anything below the waist was gone. He couldn’t see the hands with the fog, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t anything pretty at all if those twisted-looking arms were of any indication. It looked as if the arms had been cut off and dried and twisted up with other arms before being reattached again. The head itself was something like a human’s, but it only had a few strands of hair and most of its face was wrapped up in bandages; all that could be seen was a sole eye that glowed a sickening yellow in the mist and fog.
The Hanamura kid was the one who spoke up this time. “So what do you wanna do now, partner?”
Seta took a moment to glance around them, frowning. It didn’t take a genius to know why either-even Hijikata knew there was no way for them to avoid the encounter. They needed to fight it in order to move forward.
The boatswain decided that it was his turn to speak out now. “Do we fight?”
A pause after that question as the silver-haired teenager only glanced around once more before letting out a quiet sigh. “There’s not much of a choice in the matter.”
“Want me to do it?” offered the other teenager from beside him, and Hijikata only looked in slight disbelief at the brunette. He was going to fight that thing? Was the kid crazy? Did he even have-the knives. He guess he couldn’t say anything then.
Seta looked at his companion for a while after that, but eventually closed his eyes and nodded. “Just be careful.”
Hanamura only grinned. “You can count on me, partner.” Saying that, he made his way around the corner, knives in hand as the other two watched from where they were. The boatswain himself felt quite not at ease as he watched the other approaching towards the monstrosity that was crawling about on the floor. He wasn’t exactly doubting anything about the teenagers (since after all, they did know about this whole thing more than he did), but looking between the thing and the kid he really couldn’t be very sure...
“He’ll be fine,” came the voice of the silver-haired teen beside him, as if he had heard what the officer had been thinking. Hijikata only looked towards him at that, a perplexed look on his face that only grew as the teen only smiled slightly. “You don’t have to worry.”
Easy enough for you to say, the dark-haired man thought to himself just as a cry of ‘Persona!’ registered into his mind, followed by the sound of what was seemingly the noise of shattering glass. The boatswain turned back just in time to see a figure that only reminded him of something like a... disco ninja frog hovering over the Hanamura kid. There really was no other appropriate phrase for him to describe what it was besides that. A pause, and then the new figure twisted around before suddenly-
-a howl of unforgiving wind and a loud WOOSH, and then the thing was upside down twitching and jerking around. The brunette dashed forward once the wind died down, knives at the ready before he twirled around and brought the blades down to slash across the creature. There was a loud, high-pitched screech as the attack did its damage, and the thing thrashed about the floor violently before it suddenly turned into a patch of blood-tinted black smoke and vanished into thin air.
The both of them caught up to the other once the beast had been dealt with, the brunette waiting for them with a small grin.
“See, told you I could do it!”
“Good work,” the other teenager responded with a small smile.
“...what was that about?” Hijikata couldn’t help but finally ask.
Seta looked towards him at the question, a strange glimmer in his eyes as he answered his question. “It’s called a Persona-what we use to fight. It’s something of a... facade of determination that one wears in order to go though the hardships of life. Or something like that, anyway.”
The boatswain stared. “Sounds like something out of a comic book.”
“You think so?” the silver-haired teenager retuned, laughing quietly despite himself for a moment before smiling most mysteriously. “Maybe it is.”
...Hijikata didn’t really know what else he could say to that.