Tag: chrome dokuro

Trailblazers drabble (2015-07-08)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

During one of their monthly cake eating gatherings (which Kyoko and Haru keep trying to make a weekly occurrence) the topic of box familiars came up. In particular, everyone’s box familiar’s names.

Unsurprisingly, Tetsuki named hers after archery, Yuzuru’s sinuous yet firm shape reminding her of a stringed bow. Haru’s Koushaku was certainly intimidating enough to be considered royalty, but the massive antlers and freaking tusks were more nightmare fuel than fairy tale prince. Kyoko’s kamaitachi were somehow collectively named Yakushi, after the god of healing, though they were three separate creatures. Although, when not in use at the clinic, they were a force of mischief and more often than not called ‘those damn weasels’ than their actual name.

The less said about Chrome’s box familiar–which might actually be Mukuro’s box familiar or, possibly, Mukuro himself–the better.

Hana refused to have a box familiar because, as she often ranted, having an animal manifest itself from some mystical energy within her was ridiculous and impossible and stupid. Hana wasn’t a nurturer and liked her solitude–whether to escape from idiots, children, or animals–so it wasn’t much of a surprise that she didn’t want a box familiar. But in theory, if she were to have one, it’d probably be named something like Momo or Fuku.

“So what you’re saying is, you want a pet goldfish,” Tetsuki asked with a raised brow, lightly teasing.

Hana, in a rare fit of immaturity, stuck her tongue out in response.

They moved onto discussing the others’ choice for their familiars’ names. Everyone agreed that Ryohei’s Kangaryuu was so obvious, but very typical of him. Takeshi’s Kojirou (and Jirou) likewise made sense, considering the historical sword-master was known for a technique named after a swallow. They were all rather confused as to why Hayato chose melon of all things to name his storm cat. As for Hibari-senpai’s hedgehog, a consensus could not be made on whether the name Roll should be attributed to his bluntness or his not-so-secret fondness for cute things.

Their discussion of box familiar names, which had the potential to go on forever, ended when Tsuna’s choice was brought up.

“I think it’s a nice name. Very poetic.” Tetsuki stated simply, appreciative of the symbolism involved in naming a sky lion after summer.

They stared at her incredulously. Kyoko’s lips were pressed tightly into a line to reign in her laughter. Haru wasn’t even bothering with that, curling her face into her arms, fists banging against the table as she snorted into her elbow. Chrome gently pressed both hands to her mouth, as if to ward off a scathing correction from the part of her mind that may or may not be Mukuro.

Hana, deciding to have mercy on her senpai, or perhaps to spare everyone second hand embarrassment, said, “Say the stupid lion’s name five times quickly.”

Confused, but unconcerned, Tetsuki did just that. “NatsuNaTsuNaTsunaTsunaTsu–Oh my god!” She shrieked her realization, “It’s just his own name backwards!”

At that, Kyoko couldn’t stop herself and burst out laughing alongside Haru whose guffaws gained a renewed strength. Chrome, shaking her head in sympathy, gently patted Tetsuki’s shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

Hana could only face palm, despairing at the other women around the table.

~

A/N: Because I only realized belatedly that Natsu’s name is literally Tsuna backwards and I felt so ashamed I figure Tetsuki should also get to feel it too. And also, well, for all that she’s the “sensible” Guardian that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s observant. Rather, she’s almost hilariously unobservant and probably the only reason why she never falls for various lies/disguises is because she’s mistrustful not because she’s particularly clever.

The Green Knight, Part 4 (2015-05-10)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

The taxi which is not a taxi takes them to a tailor shop on Savile Row. The shop turns out to be a front, or rather, a cover to a secret underground tunnel which has a bullet train. She’s impressed by how unnecessarily deep the dressing room elevator goes–considering how ludicrous the Vongola mansion and the Foundation’s Namimori base are, that’s really saying something.

The bullet train brings them to what she can only describe as a giant garage filled with not only a multitude of cars, but several planes, and possibly boats. She lets the awe show on her face, spots in her peripheral vision that Galahad is smirking with good-natured pride beside her.

The Secchione Sezione specialize primarily in personal defense, gadgets more than vehicles, inventions that utilize Flames for an individual’s needs. Except for the occasional trips back to Namimori, most of the famiglia stay in Italy (vice versa for Kyouya-senpai); the aberrations to that rule are the Mist guardians (and Joshima and Kakimoto) and herself. Unsurprising, due to the shared nature of their missions.

The point, though, is that it’s not feasible to have a car, much less a plane, run on Flames. Vongola makes do with buying top of the line vehicles from whichever company Spanner disdains the least, then tweaking it slightly. They don’t have a need for a fleet of vehicles, she knows, but damn if the Kingsman garage isn’t impressive.

“Lucky for you, we ain’t late this time,” Galahad says, guiding her down a hallway, thankfully without any encroachment into her personal space.

She startles when she realizes that Arthur disappeared during her brief distraction by the garage. She hadn’t noticed at all.

Galahad politely does not comment on that, merely continues his own line of thought, “For me, my proposer ended up leavin’ a lot to chance, so of fucking course I was the last one in.”

“Proposer?”

“Well, yeah. Each of the current knights propose a candidate to get tested. We’re a little short on knights, though…”

Which means more spots to fill, but less recruits to choose from. The quality of knights would arguably decrease, at the very least they would be inexperienced. It’s a potential weakness, but if she learned nothing else from her teenaged years it’s that experience doesn’t always mean strength.

The lack of knights seems like a sore point, not one she should ask after. Not that she would need to, it’s obvious why so many agents would need to be replaced in such a short time. While Valentine’s Day triggered mindless aggression in most of the human population, for those whose wave energy had already been activated into Flames (which was most, if not all, of Vongola) it had just switched on their Dying Will Mode. Vongola Mansion spent their time intermittently experiencing extreme focus for no apparent reason–productivity for that day had been a record all time high. (Tsunayoshi-kun had finished enough paperwork to finally see the wood of his desk and actually burst into tears)

“Who is my proposer?” She asks instead, scolding herself for getting lost in her own thoughts.

“Technically, that would be me,” Merlin says, “Though Galahad was the one to think of it; a fine idea don’t you think, Azusa-san?”

Said knight flushes slightly at the praise.

She nods, she’s certainly grateful–because the alternative was to face abject boredom. That would be crass to admit, though, so instead she responds with, “Yes, Tempesta was honored to receive the invitation…”

So it’s a bit of an exaggeration for Hayato-kun. While not honored, he did see it as a good opportunity and was glad that she had agreed to it. As they measured her abilities through the trials, she could see what a Kingsman recruit went through to become a knight.

She herself would be a test in response.

~

A/N: Okay… so, because I’m terribly cliche, I’m thinking of calling this series The Green Knight and having the Kingsman position in question be for Gawain. Because… Lightning flames are greeeeeeeen. And she’s definitely not going to be a Kingsman agent so… mreh?

Ugh, I’m sorry this was greatly uninspired over all.

Continuation of this post. Will now tag everything in this series as The Green Knight. I apologize in advance for dirtying the tag, actual Arthurian fans 😦

The Green Knight, Part 1 (2015-05-05)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

The thing about being a mafia assassin is that, once said mafia famiglia stops being a crime organization and starts being a vigilante group, the need for assassinations decreases significantly. She isn’t exactly out of a job, because technically she’s a Guardian, not just any run-of-the-mill assassin (though it could be argued that any assassin isn’t run-of-the-mill, much less one from Vongola, much less one of the Decimo’s guardians), but she does end up having a lot more free time on her hands.

It’s gotten to the point where even the Secchione Sezione (“We are R&D!”) are getting sick of her hanging around and offering to test out their latest and greatest gadgets. She’s also careful not to push too much of her luck with the Foundation. Though the members remain rather fond of her, Kyouya-senpai is still disdainful of any crowding.

She sighs gustily, sprawled out on Hayato-kun’s office sofa which is positioned so perfectly in sunbeam. Uri who, unsurprisingly, tolerates her more than he does his master, is similarly sprawled over the back of the sofa. Yuzuru, her own box weapon familiar, is coiled up in his smaller form on her stomach. At the ensuing silence, she sighs again. The figure at the desk twitches but says nothing.

“Don’t make me do it again,” She warns lazily, fingers tracing along Yuzuru’s smooth, scaly body. He reciprocates by flicking his tongue  along her wrist in a friendly manner.

“Tch, just because you don’t have any work doesn’t mean the rest of us are similarly blessed,” Hayato-kun half-heartedly grumbles, typing continuously.

“Surely there must be something I can do? I’m beginning to become superfluous. You’re going to have an excess of bored Lightning natureds if this keeps up,” She thinks about Lambo-kun who, though much better than he was seven years ago when they first met, is still a force of mayhem. While she’s not quite at that level, she’ll admit to having some destructive tendencies of her own.

Whether he’s thinking the same thing or not, it makes Hayato-kun pause, shudder, and finally look in her direction, “Haru and Spanner are being productive,” Technically, Haru and Spanner are both dual natured Lightning and Storm. But she gets what he’s trying to say.

“But they’ve always been part of Secchione Sezione–”

“–They prefer to be called R&D–”

“And plus, I’ve already been by to see if they’d like my help. And they just turned me away,” She sighs once more, lolling her head around the sofa. It’s a very nice sofa.

“Well if you’re that bored…” Hayato-kun begins, turning back to his screen and sending a file to her contact lenses. As computers, the contact lenses have minimal memory, more suited to operating the aiming system and relaying video feed to the Vongola network. But within the vicinity of said network, it can be used to share small files for convenience. Or out of laziness.

“The Kingsman?” She wouldn’t say their meeting with the Kingsman was a disaster, necessarily. It had certainly gone better than what she had either hoped or expected. But she was sure they were at the level of civility and courtesy rather than beginning to swap favors. Even though the file–more a missive, really, from the one they called Merlin–is entirely in English, her fourth language of fluency, she thinks she gets the gist of it, “Why do they want one of us to take their tests? Surely they know Vongola is going to take priority over anything from them,”

“It makes sense,” Hayato-kun argues with a shrug, “They don’t actually want us to be one of their agents, they want to see what our abilities are. Seeing how far a member of Vongola, Guardian or not, can get through their tests gives them a good approximation of our relative strength.”

It’s when Hayato-kun talks like this, frankly and freely, that makes her realize how much all of them have grown. Six years ago he would have been crowing about how any Vongola member would breeze through such a test; as if being part of Vongola, being part of Tsunayoshi-kun’s famiglia, somehow made a person invincible by proxy. And while the Hayato-kun of six years ago (then still Gokudera-kun) had been willing to speak of his own personal insecurities to her, he would have rather cut out his own tongue than say anything negative of Tsunayoshi-kun (then still Sawada-kun) or his inheritance.

“Ah, is that so?” She demurs, briefly, “What were you thinking of doing with the…” She pauses, unsure of how to phrase it, “… invite?”

“To be honest, I was going to refuse it. I considered sending one of the more combat focused of Shamal’s subordinates–”

“–Kyoko’s minions–”

“But better to not send anyone than give a poor showing. Or worse, reveal Flames to them. The alliance we have with them is still precarious, we don’t want to give them more than we need to,” He continues, disregarding her interjection.

“It’s for several months though, why not send Mukuro or Chrome? They haven’t been as active recently either,”

Hayato-kun looks at her flatly, almost edging towards disbelief, “Because the alliance we have with them is still precarious,” he repeats, “And we do actually want them to trust us.”

Considering how the Mist guardians’ missions usually end up… yeah. She sees his point.

“Does that mean you trust me?” She smiles teasingly.

“I trust you not to fuck up,” He bites back, though a hint of a blush creeps along his face, “And you’re bored. Prendere due piccioni con una fava,”

“If you say so,” She agrees mildly. Which only causes him to blush more.

“I’ll send a confirmation and have the details sent to you. Now get out of my office!”

Oh, Hayato-kun, still so easily flustered. But she decides not to push him, because he did just give her a reprieve from boredom. So she leaves, gently draping Yuzuru over one shoulder, from which he settles himself around her neck with familiarity. For his sake, she tries not have too much bounce in her step; but she can’t help it–she’s excited.

~

A/N: BECAUSE THIS WOULDN’T LEAVE MY HEAD AND IT WAS BUGGING ME AND I WOULD LIKE TO DO SOMETHING ELSE THAT ISN’T SO PAINFULLY DERIVATIVE. AND I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO THE ACTUAL PARTS THAT WERE BUGGING ME. So… I guess expect future installments of this. This post is itself kind of a continuation to this post.

For context: POV character is my OC Lightning Guardian, Tetsuki Kaiza from Trailblazers, a KHR fic I’m maybe not actually writing. She’s a year older than Tsuna/Gokudera/Yamamoto/etc, the same age as Ryohei, and a year younger than Hibari.

Also, “Secchione Sezione” means Nerd Department/Section. The two words sound remarkably similar to me–though I don’t actually speak Italian–so I thought it’d be a teasing/informal way to call Vongola’s R&D. And “Prendere due piccioni con una fava” means “To catch two pigeons with one fava bean,” which is basically the Italian equivalent of “Kill two birds with one stone.”