Tag: the green knight

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

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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 3; Word Prompts (S31): Shaky

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She hopes Hayato-kun didn’t have high expectations of her somehow charming the Kingsman, because that is just not happening. From the moment she steps off the Vongola private jet, she knows that she is not matching their imqge of her from the first meeting, much less the appearance of a prestigious Vongola guardian. She knows that she looks more like a trendy, spoiled college student than the strongest mafia famiglia’s top assassin.

She’s wearing her casual, comfortable clothes–cotton shirt, skirt, and thin jacket–which matches her preference of pastel colors and muted, but cheerful patterns. Of course, she’s also wearing her armor–she doesn’t travel anywhere without it–but it looks enough like a really shiny unitard that it really does need to be covered with other clothes.

Arthur and Galahad meet her with a taxi cab which is definitely not standard fair. She supposes she should feel honored–that the head of the Kingsman personally came to pick her up and that they respect her lethality by sending another agent along with him–but she just feels awkward. They are both wearing extensively fancy, tailored suits; she feels distinctly underdressed. The small talk peters out when she refuses the offer of alcohol (she was never much of a fan of the taste, and Shamal “infected” all of them with an anti-poison “disease” which basically made them immune to the effects) and when she struggles with the small talk (she loathes it, and she’s not very good at English anyway).

They sit in silence. She hopes Kyoko is not watching the video feed–she would be greatly disappointed.

She fiddles with the hem of her skirt. Twists her hideous Vongola ring around her finger. Softly taps the toes of her fashionable (according to Haru), practical (according to Shouichi-kun) boots. Almost reaches for the necklace which contains Yuzuru, falters when she remembers that spilling the secret of Flames out of boredom would definitely piss off Hayato-kun, then put her hands back in her lap.

“The test ain’t nothing to worry about,” Galahad breaks the silence, a friendly smile on his face.

It must signal something to his partner, because Arthur’s stoic face softens into one of almost paternal kindness, “Indeed, Ms. Fulmine, while the Kingsman trials are indeed fraught with danger, we are not in the business of killing our allies. We appreciate this show of good will from Vongola, and your own personal sacrifice in this. We are not ungracious.”

She realizes, then, what she must look like to them. She thought they perceived her as a disrespectful, informal, unprofessional mafiosa. Dangerous and high in the Vongola hierarchy, but a poor diplomat for a rather precarious alliance. But they looked at her–saw her youth, her nationality, her unsophisticated clothes, her refusal of a drink, her fidgeting. They thought she was nervous.

She could use that.

So she responds with a shaky smile, stops her tapping feet but keeps twisting her ring. It’s enough to make it seem like she’s relieved by the words, but not too much so as to be suspicious. She is, after all, a stranger in a strange land.

“Do you have a preference for your name?” Arthur asks, pulling an iPad out from a panel in the door. On the screen is what appears to be her Kingsman file (likely they have more on her than that) which includes basic information –sex, estimation of her age, eye color (which she smugly notices they’ve incorrectly listed as brown)–and a list of dates for when she was on mission within the United Kingdom. Oddly enough, however, where should be a name is instead a blank.

“What do you mean?” She says in honest confusion.

“To put it mildly, you don’t match our usual demographic of recruit–”

At this, Galahad snorts, but says nothing.

“–and while we know you as Vongola’s Fulmine, we thought you might want to keep that part of your identity private from the other recruits. It is, of course, your choice,” Arthur says mildly before handing the iPad over to her.

It is an obvious ploy to get her to provide her real name, but the overtness takes the malice out of it. If she does so, and they already have it, then it is just a minor show of trust on her part. If she does so, and they don’t already know it, then she provides them not only her history but every Namimori-born member of Vongola. In the upper echelons alone that is four Guardians, three department heads, one deputy department head, and her boss. That’s not just her–that’s Ryohei, Kyouya-senpai, Takeshi-kun, Haru, Shouichi-kun, Hana-chan, Kyoko, and Tsunayoshi-kun. That’s her family.

Not giving her real name is the obvious choice. While it might be slightly insulting and a sign of distrust, if anything it could just be passed off as part of her trepidation.

“Azuma Shu,” she says while typing. She’s pleasantly surprised that the romaji she enters offers a menu of matching kanji to choose from. It’s the name on her passport, on the rare occasions when Vongola bothers with identification. Perhaps the pseudonym is a little bit too on the nose, but it’s technically true. It is very short, only two characters long: the kanji for lightning as a given name then protector for a surname.

“It’s nice to meet you, Azuma-san,” Galahad says with a wink, not at all displeased by her noncooperation.

Slightly flustered, she does not reprimand him for the cultural impropriety of using her supposed personal name.

~

A/N: Do not worry! There is no romance. I just imagine that anyone, especially ones even vaguely attracted to people of the masculine persuasion, would be taken by Taron Egerton’s winking.

AAAAAAND still not at the actual trials yet.

Continuation of this post. I should probably come up with a title for this crossover for tracking purposes…

Edit: Just follow “The Green Knight” for the rest of the series… though for some reason, this post doesn’t show up as tagged with it even though… it obviously is. (Edit2: fixed the not-showing-up-thing by removing the names of characters mentioned but not actually present in this drabble)

The Green Knight, Part 2 (2015-05-06)

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In the three days counting down before she’s due in the United Kingdom, her friends begin crawling out of the woodwork. They want to speak to her, give her tips, give her more gadgets, get in some last minute sparring. Tsunayoshi-kun earnestly assures her that she doesn’t have to go, but he appreciates her willingness in improving alliance relations. Kyoko ever so politely requests a full-blown medical before she goes, monitoring her health with her newest legion of Vongola medics. The Secchione Sezione (“R&D! Italian isn’t even your native language!”), once they’ve let go of their grudge, ply her with the newest version of contact lenses, armor, and a less bulky container to store Yuzuru.

Even Kyouya-senpai deigns to visit the Vongola mansion and demand a fight before jetting back to Namimori. Truth be told, she would have preferred to see her fiancé one last time instead, but her and Tetsuya’s engagement has always been one of distance and enduring love. She handles her disappointment with grace.

Ryohei, perhaps getting back at all the times she’s teased him about dating Hana, sends Tetsuya several pictures of her pouting. He sends back a short video of him blowing a kiss–or at least he tries to, his pompadour makes selfies difficult–nonetheless it makes her laugh.

The evening before her flight she asks Spanner, regarding the contact lenses, “How strong is the video feed?”

Haru despairs of her insistence on brown lenses (“Why not green, to match your Flames?”), comprehending but not agreeing with why she would cover her pale grey eyes with such a normal color. Shouichi-kun still tends to develop stomach cramps if she hangs around for too long–a remnant from a mission for which he was her handler that neither of them will comment on. So Spanner, apathetic to the core, is the one that gets to field her questions.

“Pretty strong,” He answers noncommittally, before guessing where she’s trying to go with her question, “We have a few relays set up around Europe, so as long as they don’t whisk you away to a different continent we should be able to receive it here. And, as long as you’re powering it with Flames it’ll last you for months.”

The length of the Kingsman trials… provided she gets to the final round, of course.

“We’ll set your feed up on one of the 24-hour monitors,” He continues, his blasé tone contradicting his words.  

It’s a huge relief; something she didn’t really know she was worried about until he said it. She’s a little touched, too. Vongola only has three 24-hour monitors, manned constantly by rotating teams of handlers and on-call reinforcements. One of them is devoted solely to Tsunayoshi-kun (which used to get him flustered but, by this point, he’s become desensitized to his lack of privacy). The other two’s usage depends on what missions are out there, the more vital or dangerous ones taking precedence. The Kingsman trials are practically a training exercise with their allies, so she’s a little embarrassed that she had any concerns. Much less concerns so overt that her family are pulling out all the stops to reassure her.

“Thanks,” She says honestly, any doubts and hesitation gone. She’s a guardian of the Vongola Famiglia–and her family has her back.

~

A/N: HOW HAVE I STILL NOT GOTTEN TO THE RIGHT COUNTRY YET, MUCH LESS THE ACTUAL TESTS. OH MY GOD.

This is a direct continuation of this post (which is, in and of itself, a distant sequel to this post).

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

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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.”

The Green Knight, Prologue (2015-04-21)

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It’s obvious from the expressions on everyone’s faces that the meeting, while necessary, is only grudgingly tolerated by all involved. Even the figures standing indolently, yet alert, in the corners of the room aren’t bothering to hide their boredom. With all the similarities between the negotiating parties, one would think the meeting to be more congenial.

Seated on opposite sides of the table are the leaders of two different vigilante organizations, both steeped in tradition and wealth. Beside them are their respective advisor, their right hands as one might say, each of them doing the majority of the speaking. Behind them are two silent guardians each, and even there the similarities extend–a young man with a slight smile curling at his lips, and a young woman whose professional stoicism practically drips with irritation. And yet, the tension remains.

Perhaps it is because one of the organizations had recently suffered a much-needed change in leadership, due to the previous head having been complicit in the death of millions. Perhaps it is because the other organization had previously been a crime organization, only changing to vigilantism after their own recent change in leadership. Perhaps it is because, despite both parties having left all overt weapons outside of the room, they all remain quite lethal.

It does not help that the youngest member of one of the negotiating parties is older than the eldest member of the other party. Both of them being the only females in the room.

“We understand the need for cooperation during these times of strife, yet the information you are asking for is one that must remain within Vongola,” the young man who only introduced himself as Tempesta says in softly accented English. The accent itself is difficult to parse, which is odd considering Vongola is a solely Italian organization. He has a mildly apologetic smile, to soften what is an unyielding refusal.

His premature shock of silver hair contrasts severely against the bald head of the other negotiator, codename Merlin, though the falsely conciliatory expressions are the same on both, “And yet, you ask the same of us. Surely you see how we would appreciate reciprocity.”

“Ah, but it is not a full disclosure we ask for. We would simply prefer to know when one of your… knights are to be in Italy and their purpose. So that we can ensure our respective… agents do not end up in each other’s crosshairs. Vongola is Italian, our activities are not the concerns of foreigners.”

“And yet, we have information on a number of assassinations performed on British soil by Ms. Fulmine who herself is a Japanese citizen,” Merlin gestures respectfully to said woman who only nods in acknowledgement, not bothering to deny something obviously true and which their side hadn’t really bothered making a secret.

“All on Italian citizens, specifically, members of mafia families whose activities your Kingsman would agree to be reprehensible.” Tempesta responds calmly, though his fingers tap impatiently against the table in silent twitches.

“And we also have several accounts of your affiliated groups–Varia and The Foundation–operating within the United Kingdom,” Merlin reveals, much to the displeasure of his Vongola counterpart.

At that, the Vongola show their youth and relative inexperience. Or perhaps their impatience, worn down by the tediousness of the meeting. Regardless, the guards standing in the corners, Fulmine and Pioggia, both drop their silent routine to laugh; the former in exasperation, the latter sheepishly. While Tempesta hisses angrily at them in Japanese, something along the lines of keeping their seniors out of trouble, their leader, Decimo finally deigns to speak.

“Both of our organizations have a history–of violence and secrets. This meeting is one of a new alliance, and for that both of us must change. From now on, at the very least, we will afford you the same information on our operations in your country as you do your activities in ours,” His English, likewise, is interestingly accented–more so than Tempesta’s–though recognizably with more of a Japanese flair. Which is odd, considering the leader of the Vongola is a hereditary position. But his words state simply what the two groups had been dancing around.

“I quite agree,” The Kingsman leader, only called Arthur, nods. What little remained of the tension in room easily dissipates, despite Merlin’s disgruntled sigh. The young knights, Galahad and Lancelot, also allow their inexperience to break through in grins tinged with relief… and amusement at the expense of their Vongola counterparts still being scolded by Tempesta.

~

A/N: Um… I’m not sure what’s up with this to be honest… but basically. I watched Kingsman. It was… okay? Like, it was totally worth the cost of a ticket. But I don’t know if I’d go watch it again? I might buy get the DVD, but I wouldn’t watch it again in theaters.

I’m following the headcanon of Harry survived and became Arthur, so Eggsy became Galahad.

And it’s a crossover with my KHR SI!OC fanfic Trailblazers. So, Decimo is Tsuna, obviously, Tempesta being Gokudera, Pioggia being Yamamoto, and Fulmine being my OC Tetsuki.

I don’t know which canon (fanon) it is but I think Roxy (Lancelot) is 24 and Eggsy is 25? So Tetsuki who, for some reason, I never let live to see age 25 and who is a year older than the other three would be the same age as Roxy if not younger. Probably younger, though, so that it’s early in Tsuna’s reign as Decimo.

Also… not really the comeback I wanted buuuuut oh well. I hope ya’ll enjoyed the cross-posts. I’ll probably come back to them sooner or later.

Edit: Now continued (sort of) here!

Edit2: The series is now called The Green Knight… I guess this is the prologue.