Tsubasa Reservoir Fic: Lost In Translation: Lesson IV (Interactions)
Well... better late than never, eh? ^^;; I'll continue to update but I can't make promises as to how long it will take. But thanks for reading!
Lesson IV: Interactions (No. 4 of ? )
Pairing: KuroFai
Disclaimer: These two were hatched from the collective brain of CLAMP. Not mine.
Spoilers: I don't think so, but it is set during the Shurano arc. I intend to write a few short stories based on the adventures of Kurogane and Fai in Yasha territory, with a focus on the language barrier because I love teaching, languages, and cross-cultural confusion. Yummy.
Rating: PG-16, for all the stories as a whole (language, some violence... possible "adult situations." Oh ho ho.)
Word Count: 2136.
Quick note: There is a difference between the Ashura on Shurano and the one in Celes. They have a different appearance (although Fai's Ashura is actually the father of Shurano's Ashura in the series RG Veda.) However, in the Shurano arc in the manga, Fai doesn't know they are different “Ashuras” at first. He just recognizes the name.
BTW, this is my first chapter written during my stay in Japan. I don't have internet access, but I do have my laptop in my apartment.
***
Kurogane resisted the urge to unsheathe Souhi as the scouting party advanced. The six men were garbed in a strange, thick armour which suggested they were accustomed to heavy battle, and they were all riding dragons, no less. The beasts' height gave the riders a definite advantage, and their hides were also thick and scaley - no doubt harder to pierce than horseflesh, which any respectable samurai or ninja would choose over a damn reptile. Strapped to the saddle of each dragon was an assortment of weapons (some familiar, some strange, all undoubtedly unpleasant to be on the receiving end of): this was definitely a well-equipped scouting party. Perhaps over-equipped, certainly the party would move more quickly on lighter mounts and with less equipment. Kurogane frowned, wondering what sort of opponent would necessitate such outfitting for scouts.
As the party drew closer, Kurogane sensed Fai tense as well. Although the mage always tightly suppressed his magic, Kurogane could still detect it jitter and fluctuate when Fai was startled or upset, such as now. The ninja scowled bitterly - not that all that magic would do them any good. When the party was about eighty meters from them, it split into two columns and formed a wide circle around them. Steadily, the party tightened the circle. They weren't intending to allow an easy escape, not that he and Fai had anywhere to retreat to regardless. There were less than fifty meters between the party and them when the riders halted. One of the riders dismounted, then thrust out one empty palm towards them and strode forwards.
Kurogane instantly recognized both the gesture and the commanding bearing of the man, and he forced himself to drop his hand from Souhi's handle. The leader's face was criss-crossed with scars, and his armour heavily gashed although well-maintained. Combat veteran, decided Kurogane.
The leader halted about two paces in front of them. He locked eyes with Kurogane, staring intently for several seconds, and Kurogane realized that the man's eyes had the exactly same inky color that he and Fai now had. Almost imperceptibly, the leader relaxed slightly and then said: “Speak, stranger. Where doest thou hearken from, and why doest thou wander these plains?”
The man's speech was heavily accented and formal, but it was unmistakably Japanese. Kurogane jerked his thumb in the direction he and Fai had come from. “West. I got bored.” It was mostly true; he had grown bored with the quality of his opponents and got a little rough, and Tomoyo-hime had sent him flying to the damn Space Time Bitch.
“Thou hast not the appearance of a plainsman, and thou hast no mounts,” said the leader suspiciously, eyeing Souhi.
Kurogane shrugged. “I'm not, and our mounts died.”
“Then why didst thou leave thy clan? Are thou a traitor or coward?”
The hairs on Kurogane's neck bristled and he felt a vein start to throb in his forehead. “I'm no damn traitor, and I'll kill any man who calls me a coward to my face,” Kurogane snarled, glaring at the leader to make sure he knew that he was damn lucky that Kurogane had decided not to consider the question a direct insult.
The leader let out a short, rough laugh as if he were satisfied with the answer. “Thou, I can almost believe. Thou hast not the temperament to lie well. But this one - thou cannot expect me to believe that he comes from the same clan as thou.”
Ah shit. Kurogane had suspected Fai's coloring would cause problems as soon as he had noticed that every member of the scouting party had tanned skin and dark hair. With his luck, these men were probably engaged in an eternal blood feud with the Tribe of Blond Frilly Coat-Wearing Men. “He's not,” Kurogane replied. “I found him when I was wandering across the plain, and I needed someone for shift watch - because of the bunnies.”
The man nodded solemnly as he pondered Kurogane's answer. “The demon-bunnies are well-known to us. But doest this man not speak? He hast uttered nary a word.”
“He speaks only a little of our language, and a whole lot of gibberish.” Kurogane tapped his head. “Probably dropped on his head at some point.” That was true as far as Kurogane knew, actually; it certainly would explain a lot.
The leader furrowed his brow thoughtfully. “Perhaps... yet he hast neither the build or look of a warrior, and his hands havest never known the toil of the plow.” He moved closer to Fai, staring at his face. Fai said nothing but continued to smile vacantly.
With a start, Kurogane realized that the leader was trying to check the color of Fai's eyes, but Fai's hair was obscuring his eyes.
“Who,” said the leader slowly, formal speech dropped, “would suspect an idiot weakling of being a spy... for the clan of Ashura?”
A knot tightened in Kurogane's stomach as he remembered how pale Fai's face had grown on Sharano when Ashura's name had been mentioned. If Fai had a similar reaction again, surely the leader would take that as a sign of Fai's guilt.
Suddenly, the leader's hand whipped out and he grabbed Fai under the chin, jerking Fai's face upwards. “Speak, spy,” he demanded harshly.
A hot rush of blood flooded through Kurogane's body, and he growled. Fai was an idiot, but he was his idiot ally for now, and this ass wasn't going to manhandle him, damn the negotiations. Kurogane started for the leader, intending to strike him in the back.
Then Kurogane got a look at Fai's expression and froze. The smile remained on the mage's face, but his eyes glittered like black ice: sharp and dark and dangerous. The message was unmistakable: I've killed better men than you. A chill ran down Kurogane's spine: he had never seen Fai with such a look of hostility. Despite what his instincts had warned him about Fai from the start, it was easy for Kurogane to forget how dangerous the man was really was when he acted like such a fool all the time. But perhaps that was Fai's intent.
“No Ashura,” Fai said clearly, his voice cold and low.
The leader blinked in surprise, then huffed and released Fai's face. “I suppose I was mistaken,” he said, arching one eyebrow as he turned around and headed back to his mount. “I will discuss thy trespass with Yasha-sama,” the leader called loudly as he saddled up, “and perhaps our most honored leader will be benevolent and allow thou to demonstrate your remorse by swearing thy fealty to him. If not, thou will be executed at next daybreak.”
The leader had said that last part far too cheerfully. “It'll be your funeral, asshole,” Kurogane muttered under his breath.
“Bad words, Kuro-myon,” Fai tittered in his ear, apparently now back in Happy Mode again.
“Be quiet,” Kurogane said, watching intently as the leader rode off with one of the scouts so he could scamper back to Yam-yash or whatever and squeal on them. Well, they didn't have a damn thing to apologize for; Kurogane had been keeping an eye out for boundary markers and had seen none anywhere. Yes, he himself had killed people for trespassing in Shiragashi Castle before, but the boundary wall was properly marked with the clothing and trinkets of previous trespassers (Tomoyo-hime adamantly refused to let him use body parts even though that would have been more effective.)
The remaining four scouts rode up to them. “We're to take you back to camp for now. You can ride with us,” announced the one with brown braided hair, and he dismounted. He extended his hand to Kurogane, a smile on his face. “I'm Gion; what's your name?”
Kurogane glared at Gion, suspiciously examining the extended hand and the scimitar strapped to Gion's back. He wondered if the people in Gion's country kissed hands like the Celesians and decided it wasn't worth the risk to find out. “Kurogane,” he said, pointedly crossing his arms. “And you don't speak like your leader.”
Disappointment flickered in Gion's eyes but he kept the overly-eager smile on his face. “Heh, well, Hakata likes to follow protocol whenever we meet new people, especially since it doesn't happen very often. Anyway, welcome to Shurano!”
“Thank you,” said Fai, who had decided to butt in when he recognized that phrase from their training. He lowered his eyelashes and flashed Gion a smile full of teeth, the one Kurogane had noticed Fai favored whenever he was trying to charm new acquaintances.
“You're welcome,” said Gion, a flush spreading across his face, and he ducked his head shyly. “Your woman is quite beautiful,” he said to Kurogane. “But--” he said, tutting his tongue as he flicked his eyes across Fai's torn clothing, “--you really should take better care of her. She's all scratched up. You shouldn't drag a delicate lady across the Forbidden Desert!”
He was going to kill him. No, first Gion, then Fai, who was now shaking with silent laughter beside him. And then maybe the rest of the scouts too, who were staring at Fai as if they hadn't seen anything that resembled a woman in six months. The blood started to pound in Kurogane's temples as he imagined the consequences of bringing an audience-starved Fai into a camp full of bored soldiers. Fai now spoke just enough Japanese to get himself into trouble, and then there was the matter of Fai's body language: the man draped his overly long limbs all over everything and everyone as if he were a boneless, contented cat. Kurogane found his posture sloppy, but some lonely, desperate soldiers would probably find it sensuous. He'd better set things straight here and now: “Fai. Is. Not. My. Woman. He. Is. A. Man. A Very Annoying Insane Man.”
The flush on Gion's face deepened and he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Ohh, that's okay. Our clan doesn't have any rules against that sort of thing - is that why you two left? You were forced to elope and run away?”
Thoroughly vexed, Kurogane let the breath hiss from between his teeth. “No! Didn't you hear the conversation between your leader and me?” Gion shook his head. It figured. “Never mind. Just take us to your camp, okay?”
“Okay!” Gion moved towards his dragon and gestured to Fai. “You can ride with me, okay?”
Like hell. “No, we'll ride together,” insisted Kurogane, even though he hadn't quite figured out the logistics of riding a dragon-monster. It was probably just a matter of hitting the beast in the right place, and he didn't like the idea of them being separated - the scouts could easily just ride off to different camps with them and sell Fai into slavery or to the circus or something. That would be rather difficult to explain to the brat and the princess.
“Sorry, but we can't allow that,” said Gion with an apologetic tone. “You haven't been approved by Yasha-sama yet, and these beasts are rather temperamental as well. I hope you understand and won't make this difficult. Really, I shouldn't let you keep your sword either, but I'll trust that you'll act honorably.”
Gion was not as dull as Kurogane had thought: of course Kurogane wouldn't use his sword if Gion had his unarmed companion as a hostage. Kurogane caught Fai's eyes and Fai shrugged as if to say- there's really nothing we can do about it - and then swung himself up behind Gion on the dragon.
Kurogane frowned but accepted a position on one of the other scout's mounts. As the beasts began to gallop across the desert, Kurogane found himself almost wishing that they hadn't been found. He'd finally grown inured to Fai's particular brand of teasing (mostly) and now he had to deal with the annoyances of other people who currently had the advantage over him. But he consoled himself with the thought that he was reasonably sure he could take on enough of these soldiers to escape with Fai, should circumstances make it necessary. Perhaps there was even a feather involved - in which case they could steal the feather, and then just hide out in the desert and wait for the manjuu-bun to finally get its act together and find them.
Whenever that might be.
*****
A/N:
I don't think this chapter was as funny as previous ones - it's a bit more serious since the dynamic duo is finally meeting Yasha's men. And Kurogane set a personal record for number of times annoyed. Let me know if anything didn't work. I'll try to focus more on the language element in the next one.
I reviewed the Shurano chapitres and we actually aren't shown a decent image of Yasha's men. However, all of Ashura's men are portrayed as having light hair and complexions and non-black eyes. So since we know that Yasha's clan all has black eyes, then they probably have dark hair and complexions which would complete the dichotomy.
Warrior/farmer: in a clan constantly at war with another, I figure that there probably two main professions: warrior and farmer. Fai doesn't quite look like he belongs in either class which raises the leader's suspicions. I don't think there are magicians in Shurano either - the only person who does magical acts is Ashura, and he's not quite human so he doesn't count.
FYI: This isn't going to be a “Fai sleeps with everyone in camp” or “Fai is a maiden in distress whom Kurogane must rescue!” story (not to knock those type of plots, some are quite well-written, but I personally don't view Fai's character that way.) However, Kurogane is a little jealous concerned so his perception is skewed.
Lesson IV: Interactions (No. 4 of ? )
Pairing: KuroFai
Disclaimer: These two were hatched from the collective brain of CLAMP. Not mine.
Spoilers: I don't think so, but it is set during the Shurano arc. I intend to write a few short stories based on the adventures of Kurogane and Fai in Yasha territory, with a focus on the language barrier because I love teaching, languages, and cross-cultural confusion. Yummy.
Rating: PG-16, for all the stories as a whole (language, some violence... possible "adult situations." Oh ho ho.)
Word Count: 2136.
Quick note: There is a difference between the Ashura on Shurano and the one in Celes. They have a different appearance (although Fai's Ashura is actually the father of Shurano's Ashura in the series RG Veda.) However, in the Shurano arc in the manga, Fai doesn't know they are different “Ashuras” at first. He just recognizes the name.
BTW, this is my first chapter written during my stay in Japan. I don't have internet access, but I do have my laptop in my apartment.
***
Kurogane resisted the urge to unsheathe Souhi as the scouting party advanced. The six men were garbed in a strange, thick armour which suggested they were accustomed to heavy battle, and they were all riding dragons, no less. The beasts' height gave the riders a definite advantage, and their hides were also thick and scaley - no doubt harder to pierce than horseflesh, which any respectable samurai or ninja would choose over a damn reptile. Strapped to the saddle of each dragon was an assortment of weapons (some familiar, some strange, all undoubtedly unpleasant to be on the receiving end of): this was definitely a well-equipped scouting party. Perhaps over-equipped, certainly the party would move more quickly on lighter mounts and with less equipment. Kurogane frowned, wondering what sort of opponent would necessitate such outfitting for scouts.
As the party drew closer, Kurogane sensed Fai tense as well. Although the mage always tightly suppressed his magic, Kurogane could still detect it jitter and fluctuate when Fai was startled or upset, such as now. The ninja scowled bitterly - not that all that magic would do them any good. When the party was about eighty meters from them, it split into two columns and formed a wide circle around them. Steadily, the party tightened the circle. They weren't intending to allow an easy escape, not that he and Fai had anywhere to retreat to regardless. There were less than fifty meters between the party and them when the riders halted. One of the riders dismounted, then thrust out one empty palm towards them and strode forwards.
Kurogane instantly recognized both the gesture and the commanding bearing of the man, and he forced himself to drop his hand from Souhi's handle. The leader's face was criss-crossed with scars, and his armour heavily gashed although well-maintained. Combat veteran, decided Kurogane.
The leader halted about two paces in front of them. He locked eyes with Kurogane, staring intently for several seconds, and Kurogane realized that the man's eyes had the exactly same inky color that he and Fai now had. Almost imperceptibly, the leader relaxed slightly and then said: “Speak, stranger. Where doest thou hearken from, and why doest thou wander these plains?”
The man's speech was heavily accented and formal, but it was unmistakably Japanese. Kurogane jerked his thumb in the direction he and Fai had come from. “West. I got bored.” It was mostly true; he had grown bored with the quality of his opponents and got a little rough, and Tomoyo-hime had sent him flying to the damn Space Time Bitch.
“Thou hast not the appearance of a plainsman, and thou hast no mounts,” said the leader suspiciously, eyeing Souhi.
Kurogane shrugged. “I'm not, and our mounts died.”
“Then why didst thou leave thy clan? Are thou a traitor or coward?”
The hairs on Kurogane's neck bristled and he felt a vein start to throb in his forehead. “I'm no damn traitor, and I'll kill any man who calls me a coward to my face,” Kurogane snarled, glaring at the leader to make sure he knew that he was damn lucky that Kurogane had decided not to consider the question a direct insult.
The leader let out a short, rough laugh as if he were satisfied with the answer. “Thou, I can almost believe. Thou hast not the temperament to lie well. But this one - thou cannot expect me to believe that he comes from the same clan as thou.”
Ah shit. Kurogane had suspected Fai's coloring would cause problems as soon as he had noticed that every member of the scouting party had tanned skin and dark hair. With his luck, these men were probably engaged in an eternal blood feud with the Tribe of Blond Frilly Coat-Wearing Men. “He's not,” Kurogane replied. “I found him when I was wandering across the plain, and I needed someone for shift watch - because of the bunnies.”
The man nodded solemnly as he pondered Kurogane's answer. “The demon-bunnies are well-known to us. But doest this man not speak? He hast uttered nary a word.”
“He speaks only a little of our language, and a whole lot of gibberish.” Kurogane tapped his head. “Probably dropped on his head at some point.” That was true as far as Kurogane knew, actually; it certainly would explain a lot.
The leader furrowed his brow thoughtfully. “Perhaps... yet he hast neither the build or look of a warrior, and his hands havest never known the toil of the plow.” He moved closer to Fai, staring at his face. Fai said nothing but continued to smile vacantly.
With a start, Kurogane realized that the leader was trying to check the color of Fai's eyes, but Fai's hair was obscuring his eyes.
“Who,” said the leader slowly, formal speech dropped, “would suspect an idiot weakling of being a spy... for the clan of Ashura?”
A knot tightened in Kurogane's stomach as he remembered how pale Fai's face had grown on Sharano when Ashura's name had been mentioned. If Fai had a similar reaction again, surely the leader would take that as a sign of Fai's guilt.
Suddenly, the leader's hand whipped out and he grabbed Fai under the chin, jerking Fai's face upwards. “Speak, spy,” he demanded harshly.
A hot rush of blood flooded through Kurogane's body, and he growled. Fai was an idiot, but he was his idiot ally for now, and this ass wasn't going to manhandle him, damn the negotiations. Kurogane started for the leader, intending to strike him in the back.
Then Kurogane got a look at Fai's expression and froze. The smile remained on the mage's face, but his eyes glittered like black ice: sharp and dark and dangerous. The message was unmistakable: I've killed better men than you. A chill ran down Kurogane's spine: he had never seen Fai with such a look of hostility. Despite what his instincts had warned him about Fai from the start, it was easy for Kurogane to forget how dangerous the man was really was when he acted like such a fool all the time. But perhaps that was Fai's intent.
“No Ashura,” Fai said clearly, his voice cold and low.
The leader blinked in surprise, then huffed and released Fai's face. “I suppose I was mistaken,” he said, arching one eyebrow as he turned around and headed back to his mount. “I will discuss thy trespass with Yasha-sama,” the leader called loudly as he saddled up, “and perhaps our most honored leader will be benevolent and allow thou to demonstrate your remorse by swearing thy fealty to him. If not, thou will be executed at next daybreak.”
The leader had said that last part far too cheerfully. “It'll be your funeral, asshole,” Kurogane muttered under his breath.
“Bad words, Kuro-myon,” Fai tittered in his ear, apparently now back in Happy Mode again.
“Be quiet,” Kurogane said, watching intently as the leader rode off with one of the scouts so he could scamper back to Yam-yash or whatever and squeal on them. Well, they didn't have a damn thing to apologize for; Kurogane had been keeping an eye out for boundary markers and had seen none anywhere. Yes, he himself had killed people for trespassing in Shiragashi Castle before, but the boundary wall was properly marked with the clothing and trinkets of previous trespassers (Tomoyo-hime adamantly refused to let him use body parts even though that would have been more effective.)
The remaining four scouts rode up to them. “We're to take you back to camp for now. You can ride with us,” announced the one with brown braided hair, and he dismounted. He extended his hand to Kurogane, a smile on his face. “I'm Gion; what's your name?”
Kurogane glared at Gion, suspiciously examining the extended hand and the scimitar strapped to Gion's back. He wondered if the people in Gion's country kissed hands like the Celesians and decided it wasn't worth the risk to find out. “Kurogane,” he said, pointedly crossing his arms. “And you don't speak like your leader.”
Disappointment flickered in Gion's eyes but he kept the overly-eager smile on his face. “Heh, well, Hakata likes to follow protocol whenever we meet new people, especially since it doesn't happen very often. Anyway, welcome to Shurano!”
“Thank you,” said Fai, who had decided to butt in when he recognized that phrase from their training. He lowered his eyelashes and flashed Gion a smile full of teeth, the one Kurogane had noticed Fai favored whenever he was trying to charm new acquaintances.
“You're welcome,” said Gion, a flush spreading across his face, and he ducked his head shyly. “Your woman is quite beautiful,” he said to Kurogane. “But--” he said, tutting his tongue as he flicked his eyes across Fai's torn clothing, “--you really should take better care of her. She's all scratched up. You shouldn't drag a delicate lady across the Forbidden Desert!”
He was going to kill him. No, first Gion, then Fai, who was now shaking with silent laughter beside him. And then maybe the rest of the scouts too, who were staring at Fai as if they hadn't seen anything that resembled a woman in six months. The blood started to pound in Kurogane's temples as he imagined the consequences of bringing an audience-starved Fai into a camp full of bored soldiers. Fai now spoke just enough Japanese to get himself into trouble, and then there was the matter of Fai's body language: the man draped his overly long limbs all over everything and everyone as if he were a boneless, contented cat. Kurogane found his posture sloppy, but some lonely, desperate soldiers would probably find it sensuous. He'd better set things straight here and now: “Fai. Is. Not. My. Woman. He. Is. A. Man. A Very Annoying Insane Man.”
The flush on Gion's face deepened and he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Ohh, that's okay. Our clan doesn't have any rules against that sort of thing - is that why you two left? You were forced to elope and run away?”
Thoroughly vexed, Kurogane let the breath hiss from between his teeth. “No! Didn't you hear the conversation between your leader and me?” Gion shook his head. It figured. “Never mind. Just take us to your camp, okay?”
“Okay!” Gion moved towards his dragon and gestured to Fai. “You can ride with me, okay?”
Like hell. “No, we'll ride together,” insisted Kurogane, even though he hadn't quite figured out the logistics of riding a dragon-monster. It was probably just a matter of hitting the beast in the right place, and he didn't like the idea of them being separated - the scouts could easily just ride off to different camps with them and sell Fai into slavery or to the circus or something. That would be rather difficult to explain to the brat and the princess.
“Sorry, but we can't allow that,” said Gion with an apologetic tone. “You haven't been approved by Yasha-sama yet, and these beasts are rather temperamental as well. I hope you understand and won't make this difficult. Really, I shouldn't let you keep your sword either, but I'll trust that you'll act honorably.”
Gion was not as dull as Kurogane had thought: of course Kurogane wouldn't use his sword if Gion had his unarmed companion as a hostage. Kurogane caught Fai's eyes and Fai shrugged as if to say- there's really nothing we can do about it - and then swung himself up behind Gion on the dragon.
Kurogane frowned but accepted a position on one of the other scout's mounts. As the beasts began to gallop across the desert, Kurogane found himself almost wishing that they hadn't been found. He'd finally grown inured to Fai's particular brand of teasing (mostly) and now he had to deal with the annoyances of other people who currently had the advantage over him. But he consoled himself with the thought that he was reasonably sure he could take on enough of these soldiers to escape with Fai, should circumstances make it necessary. Perhaps there was even a feather involved - in which case they could steal the feather, and then just hide out in the desert and wait for the manjuu-bun to finally get its act together and find them.
Whenever that might be.
*****
A/N:
I don't think this chapter was as funny as previous ones - it's a bit more serious since the dynamic duo is finally meeting Yasha's men. And Kurogane set a personal record for number of times annoyed. Let me know if anything didn't work. I'll try to focus more on the language element in the next one.
I reviewed the Shurano chapitres and we actually aren't shown a decent image of Yasha's men. However, all of Ashura's men are portrayed as having light hair and complexions and non-black eyes. So since we know that Yasha's clan all has black eyes, then they probably have dark hair and complexions which would complete the dichotomy.
Warrior/farmer: in a clan constantly at war with another, I figure that there probably two main professions: warrior and farmer. Fai doesn't quite look like he belongs in either class which raises the leader's suspicions. I don't think there are magicians in Shurano either - the only person who does magical acts is Ashura, and he's not quite human so he doesn't count.
FYI: This isn't going to be a “Fai sleeps with everyone in camp” or “Fai is a maiden in distress whom Kurogane must rescue!” story (not to knock those type of plots, some are quite well-written, but I personally don't view Fai's character that way.) However, Kurogane is a little jealous concerned so his perception is skewed.