Been catching up with Air Gear over the past few days, and this has been stuck in my head and just begging to get out and wreak havoc upon fanfic readers. Beware.
Summary: Combat is not a 'fine' art. AT combat even less so.
Screw-ups aren't uncommon. 'Controlled' injury? What a fucking oxymoron. Emphasis on _moron_.
Borderline darkfic warning.
---
***
Tell me what the rain knows
an Air Gear AU shortfic
by Griever
***
Put them on.
"Ya sure about this, ki ... nah. Ya sure about this, Crow?"
Lace them up. Make sure it holds. AT. The source of it all. What started it all.
"No. Fuck, Sora, how'm I supposed to be _sure_ about something like this?"
Stomp, well and hard, and hear the squeal of tearing floor.
"Yer set on doin' this. Enough to make people think yer sure."
Yeah, the knee still hurts, but to hell with it.
Too angry to give a damn. Too angry to care. Too angry to notice the pain.
All it took was a single phone-call to his cell, and the photo sent along with it.
Kazu ... should he hate him for that? He sounded all kinds of messed up, and Ikki doubted it was because of what he'd seen. But he wasn't talking.
Not.
His.
Problem.
Kazu'd always been too tough to break. He'd work through it, and come out stronger after, whatever the hell he's going through.
Ikki ... with Ikki, it was always less a matter of working through a problem, and more one of coming at it head on, and then soaring away straight over its head.
That ...
... that wouldn't work this time.
"Why the hell ain't you stopping me, ossan?"
Takeuchi Sora frowned, then shook his head. "Yeah, I could ... but, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, I'm thinkin'. What, I'm s'posed to stop you from tryin' ta follow yer Road?" The wheelchair-bound onetime Wind King sighed. "Wind's a fickle thing, Crow. Ya know that. I know that. It can be the gentlest thing in the world. But there's times ... there's times it's the most unforgiving sonuvabitch out there as well. And yer the Wind, bird-boy. That's just the way it is."
***
The flames shot upwards with unholy glee, staining the night sky crimson.
That was the first thing she saw.
And when she realized just _where_ those flames were coming from, she didn't even stop to consider before she was running, vaulting, sprinting over and past whatever got in her way.
When she laid eyes on the scene, she felt relief. They were out.
Huddled together, shaken, and in their sleepwear, but they were out.
"Mikan, Ringo, Shiraume!" She shouted. Her sisters, the only true family she'd ever had ... she didn't know what she'd have done had something happened to them.
But that still left ...
"Ikki! Where's Ikki?!"
Mikan shook her head slightly, and Noyamano Riku's heart stopped ...
"Broken kneecap."
... until the voice came. Harsh. So very, very harsh and unforgiving was the tone, that she didn't recognize it until she looked up.
"Fractured hip, multiple fractures to the pelvis," Ikki. Minamo Itsuki. Crow. Her 'little brother' that she wouldn't have exchanged for anything in the world. Not that she was demonstrative about that.
"Fucking _nerve damage_, an' they're sayin' she'll likely have to learn how to _walk_ again. That she'll never _run_ again, much less anything else. Hell, they don't even know if she'll _wake up_ at all!"
That look on his face, as he stood there, scowling, staring down from a perch on top of a streetlight, straight at ...
"You know, you should have just fucking killed her. Instead, you were so fucking _magnanimous_ about it, so fucking _arrogant_ ... I don't know you at all, do I? And what I'm seeing? It disgusts me."
... her sisters?
"You took her sky."
He reached into his jacket, drawing something out from beneath. Scattering metallic bits and pieces that hit the ground ... very familiar bits and pieces.
Bits and pieces that, when they'd still been together, Riku had worn and used.
"So I'm takin' yours."
The Thorn Regalia ATs. Mark of the leader of Sleeping Forest, the Queen of Thorns.
"And your precious Sleeping Forest?"
He flicked his free hand, that she realized wasn't free at all ... but holding a lighter.
"I'll fucking _burn it_ to the ground."
Just like that, he was gone. A shadow in the darkness, on silent crow wings.
And Riku, though she knew she wouldn't like the answer, still had to ask. "Ringo ... what have you _done_?"
The only things that broke the silence of night were the roaring flames, and Ringo's sobbing.
***
END tell me what the rain knows
***
---
That's right. What if Ringo messed up and Simca really _was_ in as bad a way as the chapters where she'd brought to the hospital indicate at first.
And what if Kazu had caught the whole thing on camera?
I'm thinking, Ikki'd be going apeshit.
And yeah, I'm channeling my own feelings here, because this more recent Sleeping Forest? It makes me sick.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
Summary: Combat is not a 'fine' art. AT combat even less so.
Screw-ups aren't uncommon. 'Controlled' injury? What a fucking oxymoron. Emphasis on _moron_.
Borderline darkfic warning.
---
***
Tell me what the rain knows
an Air Gear AU shortfic
by Griever
***
Put them on.
"Ya sure about this, ki ... nah. Ya sure about this, Crow?"
Lace them up. Make sure it holds. AT. The source of it all. What started it all.
"No. Fuck, Sora, how'm I supposed to be _sure_ about something like this?"
Stomp, well and hard, and hear the squeal of tearing floor.
"Yer set on doin' this. Enough to make people think yer sure."
Yeah, the knee still hurts, but to hell with it.
Too angry to give a damn. Too angry to care. Too angry to notice the pain.
All it took was a single phone-call to his cell, and the photo sent along with it.
Kazu ... should he hate him for that? He sounded all kinds of messed up, and Ikki doubted it was because of what he'd seen. But he wasn't talking.
Not.
His.
Problem.
Kazu'd always been too tough to break. He'd work through it, and come out stronger after, whatever the hell he's going through.
Ikki ... with Ikki, it was always less a matter of working through a problem, and more one of coming at it head on, and then soaring away straight over its head.
That ...
... that wouldn't work this time.
"Why the hell ain't you stopping me, ossan?"
Takeuchi Sora frowned, then shook his head. "Yeah, I could ... but, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, I'm thinkin'. What, I'm s'posed to stop you from tryin' ta follow yer Road?" The wheelchair-bound onetime Wind King sighed. "Wind's a fickle thing, Crow. Ya know that. I know that. It can be the gentlest thing in the world. But there's times ... there's times it's the most unforgiving sonuvabitch out there as well. And yer the Wind, bird-boy. That's just the way it is."
***
The flames shot upwards with unholy glee, staining the night sky crimson.
That was the first thing she saw.
And when she realized just _where_ those flames were coming from, she didn't even stop to consider before she was running, vaulting, sprinting over and past whatever got in her way.
When she laid eyes on the scene, she felt relief. They were out.
Huddled together, shaken, and in their sleepwear, but they were out.
"Mikan, Ringo, Shiraume!" She shouted. Her sisters, the only true family she'd ever had ... she didn't know what she'd have done had something happened to them.
But that still left ...
"Ikki! Where's Ikki?!"
Mikan shook her head slightly, and Noyamano Riku's heart stopped ...
"Broken kneecap."
... until the voice came. Harsh. So very, very harsh and unforgiving was the tone, that she didn't recognize it until she looked up.
"Fractured hip, multiple fractures to the pelvis," Ikki. Minamo Itsuki. Crow. Her 'little brother' that she wouldn't have exchanged for anything in the world. Not that she was demonstrative about that.
"Fucking _nerve damage_, an' they're sayin' she'll likely have to learn how to _walk_ again. That she'll never _run_ again, much less anything else. Hell, they don't even know if she'll _wake up_ at all!"
That look on his face, as he stood there, scowling, staring down from a perch on top of a streetlight, straight at ...
"You know, you should have just fucking killed her. Instead, you were so fucking _magnanimous_ about it, so fucking _arrogant_ ... I don't know you at all, do I? And what I'm seeing? It disgusts me."
... her sisters?
"You took her sky."
He reached into his jacket, drawing something out from beneath. Scattering metallic bits and pieces that hit the ground ... very familiar bits and pieces.
Bits and pieces that, when they'd still been together, Riku had worn and used.
"So I'm takin' yours."
The Thorn Regalia ATs. Mark of the leader of Sleeping Forest, the Queen of Thorns.
"And your precious Sleeping Forest?"
He flicked his free hand, that she realized wasn't free at all ... but holding a lighter.
"I'll fucking _burn it_ to the ground."
Just like that, he was gone. A shadow in the darkness, on silent crow wings.
And Riku, though she knew she wouldn't like the answer, still had to ask. "Ringo ... what have you _done_?"
The only things that broke the silence of night were the roaring flames, and Ringo's sobbing.
***
END tell me what the rain knows
***
---
That's right. What if Ringo messed up and Simca really _was_ in as bad a way as the chapters where she'd brought to the hospital indicate at first.
And what if Kazu had caught the whole thing on camera?
I'm thinking, Ikki'd be going apeshit.
And yeah, I'm channeling my own feelings here, because this more recent Sleeping Forest? It makes me sick.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
