Log; Complete

[violentflutist.livejournal.com]

When; Dec. 31st [backdated]
Rating; PG-13 for language
Characters; Tayuya {violentflutist} & Percival Fraulein {gegnet
Summary; Percival offers Tayuya healing and she offers him a spar, though they end up just talking about their worlds.
Log;

Percival walked the city as carefully as he would have a battlefield in the past. Considering the past few days he believed the caution was well justified. He moved quickly while keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary or perhaps the sight of that bloody pyramid, though he had a less than favourable impression of Tayuya there was no sense in keeping her waiting. She was injured and she had offered to spar. Much as he hated to admit it he needed to physical release, it was unusual for him to be so aggravated but the situation was unique.

The fountain in sight he sped up, quelling the memories of Borus’ injured form sprawled in front of it. The symbol of the True Fire rune was no longer imprinted on the ground but he could place exactly where it had been and where the blonde’s body had been abandoned.

Tayuya was straggling. As much as she hated to admit it, she was quite wounded. The stab wound under the ribs was the most grievous injury, and the movement it took to get her from the temple to the fountain had torn open the goddamned stitching she’d done. Again. She’d hoped Cobray would heal her, he was useful for that, but she’d pushed too far earlier, with him and with several others it seemed, and that avenue was closed to her. It was almost an insane stroke of luck she’d run into that knight’s friend. She’d have to go talk to Redrum later, but until then there was this Fraulein, with not only the promise of another fight, (Tayuya was almost always up for one), but healing as well.

The Sound ninja counted herself damn lucky when she finally managed to touch the fountain, and by touch she barely managed to prevent herself from simply collapsing into it, one hand holding her side stiffly, it was bleeding again, and her other arm hanging limp at her side, though her eyes remain keen, looking about for sign of the former knight.

Percival saw her first, shaking his head slightly. A part of him had to grudgingly respect her, injured like that and she was still conscious and walking. Another part just thought it was stupid. Shaking his head slightly in disapproval he walked up to her carefully, wordlessly assisting her to rest against the edge of the fountain.

He wasn’t mage quality by far but as far as knights go Percival was decent with rune magic with an affinity for water runes. An iridescent blue glow surrounded the nearby area, contrasting with the ever changing lights of the fountain, as he cast MotherOcean. The healing spell worked quickly, closing the wounds that had been bleeding and soothing over whatever unseen aches and sores efficiently. Really it had been enough to heal Borus he’d just been unnecessarily worried. “I trust you feel better, madam?” he asked mildly, not yet offering her a hand to help her up. Fully restored she may have been but with the magic working through her system it was better to stay still for a moment longer.

Tayuya had watched him approach, still slightly wary, though she doubted, if he's been truthful with her, that he would hurt her. But a ninja's life was suspect, so wary she was nonetheless. The girl had opened her mouth to speak when she stopped herself, shoulders hunching in a surge of trepidation when the… magic rushed over her. She blinked a few times, almost able to feel the knitting of muscle and flesh. It was quite different from chakra healing, leaving her feeling… sort of cold, and almost dizzy. The ninja was quiet a moment, shaking her head, rotating the newly mended shoulders, breathing deeply and feeling no stabbing pains, flexing her palms without discomfort and fresh bleeding. Oh, this was nice.

“No need to be so formal, Fraulein.” She finally spoke, though she tried to keep her usual tones out of her voice. Tayuya was beginning to see the point in… allies. Of her own, not her master’s. “I’m hardly a proper lady by any standards, anyway. Tayuya’s fine.” Plus she just didn’t like the idea of being protected, coddled, or catered to, in action or word.

“Hm, if that’s what you prefer, Tayuya,” he drawled her name slightly, unused to the sounds of the characters. It sounded foreign but that only made sense considering how different their worlds probably were. The only ninjas he’d met before were Watari and Ayame and it seemed it was very different from whatever organization Tayuya came from.

He sat down next to her though he kept still kept his distance. He couldn’t imagine that Tayuya would appreciate anyone hovering over her like that and Percival wasn’t fond of looking down on people anyway. “I trust that took care of all your injuries?”

“It is.” She answered quickly. Names like lady, miss, and other formalities always made her feel that much more… she didn’t know. Annoyed? Maybe. It was more she always thought such names were for weaklings, not respectable ninja like herself.

“… I think so, yeah.” She did a last check, rubbing her fingers against her palms, both rough and calloused, swinging her shoulders and moving her throat from side to side. “Yeah, I’m good.” She turned her head to smile. Not a sweet smile, of course, but… a grateful one. “Thanks, Fraulein.” Tayuya did have her weapons on her, kunai, shuriken, the works. “Did you wanna get straight to business?”

Dark brows rose slightly at the smile. It was unexpected, he could see Tayuya’s expression as nothing short of condescending but that smile was actually pleasant. Percival’s lips quirked in response, a casual grin unlike the gentle smiles that he tended to offer women. “You want to test out your body already?” he asked with a slightly exasperated shake of his head.

“Your body may be fully healed but your mind might not have fully registered it. It’s possible your movements will still be impeded or that you’ll feel phantom aches.” In battle there was no chance for rest but when it was casual sparring Percival preferred not to rush healing even with the help of runes.

“It… needs to register?” She was puzzled. She… felt fine. A release of the curse seal would certainly register everything she needed, but Tayuya was learning. Trying to cultivate allies, people she could… well, she didn’t think she’d ever fully trust anyone, but trust enough. And scaring people with the curse seal, (and she thought Greed was fucked in the head to think otherwise about the cursed appearance), was not the way to go.

“Well… I guess you know best.” Admitting others may know more was almost physically painful. “We could talk a moment, I suppose, while I… catch up?” She was still moving, hands clenching and unclenching, shifting, moving her hair, forever in motion, and finally settling on twirling a kunai knife about her fingers quickly, the blade traveling in loops and whirls, little trick motions she’d learned in her youth.

“…didn’t take you to be the kind for small talk,” he commented idly, though he didn’t protest. He had hardly left the space he shared with Borus since carrying the injured knight back. And anxious as he was about his longtime friend’s state of mind Percival admitted to himself that he could use the break. Rage was not something that was common to him, he was the calmer of the two but the intense anger and hatred he’d felt so recently could be attributed to no other word.

“Usually during military engagements people move on anyways but I don’t like to rush things. And there’s no rush to spar so you might as well take the chance to take a break. You sound like the kind of person that’s too eager to fight and suffer injuries. Not that I think I’ll do much damage.”

“Too eager?” Tayuya didn’t think there was a such a thing, but… “I guess. You’re not the first to say that. Today.” Oh, but she had been surprised no one had come after her for that. “But I can afford to be, see?” She had meant to laugh off what she was about to say, but frowned instead when the arm that had been dislocated moments before fumbled the knife and it clattered to the ground. A moment of silence and she bent to pick the blade up, resuming her hand motions, albeit slightly slower.

“Cause I’m dead.” She finally said. “So it doesn’t matter how many more times I die here.”

“I see…” he remembered Jowy Blight telling him that there were dead people in the city as well but he didn’t expect them to be quite like this. Like this meaning like everyone else. He tilted his head slightly, regarding Tayuya seriously. Not only did she look perfectly alive she was still breathing, completely capable of injury as well. It seemed to make little difference if a person was dead or alive. A rather depressing thought he found it.

“Even if you are dead I can’t imagine dying would be a pleasant experience,” Percival shot her a brief glance. “Unless you enjoy the pain? Or do you enjoy inflicting pain?”

“I don’t enjoy it, but I can take it, a hell of a lot of it, if I use my curse seal.” Tayuya remarked, realizing she’d caught the man a bit off guard with the fact of her… deceased nature. “As for causing it, well…” She shot the former knight another smile, though it was quite different from the others. A dangerous smile. “Depends on the person, yeah?” But she shrugged, flipping the knife from the arm that had been dislocated to the one that had held the slashed shoulder.

“But, no. Dying is no fun.” Tayuya couldn’t help looking up with a grimace. “Just… glad my back was broken. Didn’t feel anything.”

Percival gave a small chuckle, inappropriate though it might have been. “I suppose I should be careful when I spar with you then.” He didn’t pry about the circumstances of her death; it wasn’t his business no matter how curious he might have been. She seemed fairly young. Then again she was a ninja and those kinds of professions did not tend to cultivate long healthy lives.

“Probably out of practice considering I’ve spent the past year farming and raising horses,” he commented absently. It sounded dull and boring, especially compared to the variety of people that this city provided. But Percival had enjoyed it. In fact if there had been a stable or some horses nearby he wouldn’t have needed to ask for a spar at all. Spending time with the intelligent animals were more than enough to soothe whatever frazzled nerves he was nursing.

"Never ridden a horse." Tayuya commented, gaze moving back down to earth and looking the man over. Carefully this time, taking in build, height, weight, and the like. “They kind of like pets?” She almost fumbled the knife, but this time caught it before it clattered to the ground. Cocking her head, she smiled again. “I’ve got three pets, but I can’t summon them here.”

“To some people I suppose, more like companions to me though.” Percival stretched his legs out, not minding Tayuya’s scrutiny. His build was more obvious without armor, in knight’s armor everyone looked bulky. Even Roland’s slender, elfin build had seemed almost bulky. Without the added bulk it was easy to see that though Percival was strong and muscled from training and farm work he was nothing near hulking.

“You have summoning in your world too?” he asked, interested now. He’d only seen such skill used by those like Yuber, Sarah, and the Masked Bishop. It had been…terrifying really to be up against that kind of power. But he had a scholarly kind of curiosity for such things. It seemed to be an innate skill, not something that could be learned. Even though the Pale Gate rune was possible to acquire not many people could equip one.

“’Course.” It was one of the most natural things to Tayuya. “Ninja make summoning contracts all the time.” She figured he’d want more details, and she was willing to provide them. One thing she’d learned was to get openness, she had to give it.

“Some summon more natural creatures like… snakes.” She cited her master’s preference out of habit. “But there’s more unnatural ones, like mine.” Realizing she didn’t have pen or paper, Tayuya dipped her hand into the fountain, shifting so that she was straddling the bench to draw in the space between herself and Percival. Damp fingers traced the shapes of three hulking, humanoid creatures, standing out as darkened stone. Each was rather disturbed looking, one with arms bound back, one with its head on backwards, and all with mouths sewn shut. It was a crude drawing, but the point got across.

“They’re my pets.” The ninja nipped at her thumb, drawing a bead of blood and wiping it across the bottom of the image. “And usually I can summon ‘em with that and my flute.”

“Interesting,” it was a grotesque looking thing even crudely drawn, uglier and more morbid looking than the creatures that Percival had seen summoned. “I don’t suppose they’re very affectionate pets.” Ugly though they were he wondered if Tayuya missed them.

“They can be.” Tayuya said, smiling only a little. She did miss them. Not only because they had been a key part of her combat routine, but because the feeling of being able to call them whenever she wanted, of never having to be alone, had comforted her.

“I control their movements with my flute, but I can let them have free reign if I want.” She wiped the drawings from the stone with a smear of her palm, frowning slightly. “But I can’t summon them here because of the barrier. You want anything from your world you have to go through Dorian.”

Percival caught the expression that flitted across her face. “I miss my horses,” he confessed easily, drawing her attention away from her pets hopefully. “I had been away from them for a while so I didn’t raise most of them but since I left the Zexen Knights they’ve been my most constant companions. It’s a pity if there were horses here I would teach you how to ride.”

If he’d had less concrete things to worry about he’d probably be fretting about Odile. She was the kind that would wait for him endlessly if someone else didn’t find her. Shaking thoughts of his fair mount he tilted his head slightly in question, “Who is Dorian?”

“I’ve never seen a horse.” Tayuya had tucked her legs up under her, cross-legged on the fountain bench, curiously watching. This man was interesting. And probably very useful. “I saw them in books, but I… um…” She averted her gaze for a moment. “Don’t read complicated stuff very well, so I just looked at the pictures.” Orochimaru had taught her to read, of course, but she’d always had trouble with the more complicated sentences. And her spelling had been atrocious.

“Dorian is the… well, the lady.” She cast about, the woman was usually around, but didn’t see her at the moment. “You can go to her if you want to trade memories for something. Like… um, example…” The ninja sought for one. “You could trade her memories of someone special in return for getting out of here, or trade a fond thought for something from your world. You could probably even get a horse if you asked her.”

“Memories,” he murmured quietly, surprisingly not all that surprised. The City with all its wonders seemed to be quickly becoming old news to him. “Quite a price to pay. I hope I won’t be desperate enough to agree with such a trade,” though knowing this city he couldn’t be too sure. But it certainly wasn’t an option to take lightly.

“Seeing a horse in a picture is very different from seeing the actual animal. If I ever acquire one I’ll be sure to show you,” he said fondly. He didn’t quite trust Tayuya yet but he didn’t mind her. Despite her crude language and rough personality there was something kind of innocent about her.

“That’d be neat.” Tayuya commented. She’d seen beasts of burden around Otogakure, but the one time Jiroubou had said a man on a horse had come, she’d been bedridden after training. “I’d show you my summons, but I was only able to call them during the barrier weakness awhile back.” As for memories… she shrugged.

“I know a few people have done it. Some shinigami woman traded memories for her sword. And-“ Tayuya didn’t know if she should mention this, but she didn’t think the former knight would ever puzzle out the connection unless he did a really thorough background check. “I know this medic from my world has been going to Dorian about getting her lover’s memories back.” She shrugged, not mentioned the circumstances, or that she was very, very, involved.

“So, Fraulein?” She changed the subject. “What do you fight with? All the stories when I was little said horses, so check, and swords. That it?”

“Basically,” he agreed with a slight nod. It wasn’t a very versatile way to fight. It was something he learned during the Second Fire Bringer War. But after that he’d retired from knighthood. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t done some additional training. “And there’s rune magic. I’m nowhere near the level of a proper rune mage but I’m competent.”

“Like the healing thing, then.” Tayuya nodded, managing to shrug at the same time somehow. Replacing the kunai at her hip and taking out a single shuriken, the girl idly twirled the sharp star about one finger, still rolling out her shoulder.

“What do knights even do? You save ladies? Fight dragons?” Her smile was torn between genuine and a smirk, unable to decide.

“Yeah, there are different kinds of runes of course. Some of them allow you to cast spells like this one,” Percival held up his right hand, the flowing rune affixed glowing faintly. “The flowing rune is mostly for restoring yourself and your comrades. There are more offensive runes like the rage rune. Others are support runes like the wall rune that increases your defense but lowers your mobility.”

Percival couldn’t help the light laugh slipped out at the inquiry of what a knight was. It was a popular question wasn’t it? And most people seemed to imagine it to be like the knights in fairytales. Though in this world Percival wouldn’t have been too surprised to find such knights. “…Really it wasn’t much more than a glorified term for soldiers.”

“Well, at least you get the glory, huh?” She began flipping the kunai into the air, catching it between her calloused fingers. “Ninjas don’t really get glory tales.” She smirked now. “Unless you count ‘And then the ninja killed the assassination target, got paid, and lived happily ever after until he died on the next mission, the end.” Tayuya laughed, finding that funny. Bitterly so, considering her own death.

“That’s one way to think of it,” he shook his head slightly. It was a depressing train of thought. “So, how are you feeling?” Better to beat these thoughts out of his brain than dwell on it.

“Oh.” Tayuya turned to the fountain, letting the shuriken fly from her fingertips without warning to clatter off the marble stone, arm fully extending before snapping back.

“Good.” She rolled the shoulder one last time for good measure, nodding to herself and repeating the assessment.

“You wanted to spar later, yeah?”

“Yeah, whenever you’re free.” Percival nodded with a slight grin, eager. Instead of rushing through the golden fields and letting the wind erase his mind he’d have to settle for the rush of a good spar. It wasn’t that he wanted to hurt someone, he just wanted to blow some steam, forget about how retarded and improbably his current situation was.

“Hell, sure.” Tayuya hopped to her feet, stretching, rolling from the hip and enjoying the lack of pain when she did such. She hated to admit it, but she’d grown used to instant healing from Kabuto or another medic, and having to endure those injuries for two days was not pleasant, though Greed had helped with the hot springs.

“We’ve wasted the sunlight for today, it seems.” She threw a glance over her shoulder at the setting sun. “But, I don’t do much, so whenever is fine with me.”

“How does tomorrow sound? Around 8 a.m. we can meet here,” he suggested, pulling himself up and offering a hand to Tayuya. “Get some rest tonight.”

Tayuya took the hand with a smirk, the other hand ruffling through her long red hair.

“Of course, Fraulein.”