Heh. Sadly, they likely wouldn't live in the same timeline, unless it was a sort of amalgam. That was 2040 Linna, you see, right after the first episode of the TV series (because the techno-organic Guyver would fit in with that reality better).
It's mostly the reason I had Kuga do the delivery, since he would have insisted he deal with any '32 related ones, even if it wasn't one to 'his' timeline.
The rest of that reason being that, for all her Tsundereness and attitude, she's a lot more restrained than Katz/Katsu in certain settings. The Guardians or Powers or what you will know better than to send or direct him into a particular sort of setting.
Hmm. *snicker* Amusing thought, ...
That had been amusing, if nothing else. Familiar with the setting as I was, I'd never really gone out of my way with interest for it.
The prosthetic had been interesting, from an academic point of view ... and it was inventive of them to work through someone I trusted not to screw me over. To a certain extent, anyway.
Yes, I'm paranoid. It's in the job description.
The set of instructions and impropmtu demonstration Caster ... hmm, I guess I should get used to calling him Nathan ... had given me on how to connect and calibrate the damn thing - he said it was an older model of the one he was using - was worth the trip on its own, in any case. Enlightening in quite a number of ways. Not to mention the whole 'touching base with an acquaintance' factor.
Maybe they were trying to make up for that whole Ryvius mess. Well, they were on the right track.
Speaking of which, tracking the 'target' down hadn't been difficult. Just a matter of following the roars.
Big lizards. Big fire-breathing lizards. Big fire-breathing lizareds that also happened to be empaths. What fun.
Makes me wish I'd gone through the briefing a bit more thoroughly - I should have picked up on the fact that they wouldn't be aggressive unless in response to aggression shown in the first place. Oh well.
They weren't exactly complex minds, inherent physical power aside, and Terror works best on those.
I found a relatively secure spot of a cave a quarter of an hour's flight away from there, after I'd stilled the kid's bleeding and stopped the nerve endings from dying, and set about connecting the arm. Didn't take long. The change was immediately obvious, as the enchantments woven into the prosthetic worked against the trauma of the injury.
I didn't extend my stay for much longer after that, and left right after he woke up. Well, maybe not _right_ after, but soon enough for government work.
Besides, I wanted to check in on how Shizuru's part in this whole thing was going.
***
The white-haired man disappeared, leaving the equally white-haired boy with far more questions than answers, and a new arm to replace the one he'd so recently lost - something the shock of he was still working through hours afterwards.
Still, the words that had been spoken to him echoed in his mind, and rather than traumatized he was ... considering. Evaluating.
Luck is a poor substitute for skill, and fortune's a fickle bitch no matter how you try to tame her. Predestination is a crock. Lastly - and bear with me, because this is important - ideals are all well and good, but don't let them blind you, or you'll wake up one morning and loathe the person you see looking back at you from the mirror. Most of all, though ... enojoy life. Otherwise, whatever you do with it will be meaningless in the end.
He ... he had a brother who looked up to him. And people who relied on him. A mother who loved him.
The realization that he'd been considering going into exile after this ... failure ... came, and was savagely beaten down.
By the time he was feeling up to traveling, Folken Lacour de Fanel had come to several decisions. He wouldn't be king. It wasn't ... it wasn't _him_. There was something else out there for him, but that something would require effort, work, and a clear mind. For now, though, he would return home.
Nothing quite drove home the importance of family like a near-death experience did, and he did want to muse further upon the nature of the beast that had nearly taken his life ... in a setting that offered proper perspective.
***
Another place, another time, another world
Shizuru found she was enjoying herself immensly. Likely, she would have done so even if she were to only take in the ambience.
There was just something about Ohtori Academy that spoke to her.
Also, she'd just enjoyed an insight into one of her favorite 'characters', despite the conversation's abrupt nature.
She'd been that edgy once, she realized, before she'd found her equilibrium. A somewhat skewed one, but an equilibrium nonetheless.
The 'gift' she'd been sent to deliver had been recieved with more than a fair dose of skepticism, but then again, Arisugawa-san had never been one to believe in miracles, or unexpected boons, or the like.
That was alright, though. She'd most likely try to follow the scientific method in this case, which would still yield positive results.
"Having fun?" a familiar voice asked, from slightly off to the side. She didn't startle, having become used to her ... acquaintance's? friend's? traveling companions? ... habits. Popping up unannounced in some of the oddest places being one of those.
Katz, which was the first name she'd known him to use and the one she most often labeled him with, was sitting on a small flight of steps leading down to the currently empty track field. He was also fiddling with a trio of roses ...
He noticed the stare and shrugged.
"Yeah, I ran across someone with a habit of handing these out."
One was purple, though faintly tinted with shimmering azure. The second almost shone, paradoxically enough, _black_, with red running along the edges of the petals. The last one, which seemed to occupy more than a fair bit of his attention, looked like it had been cast from bronze at first sight. It caught the light in a most curious way.
"Why exactly are you here? Shouldn't you be off on your own part of this errand?"
"Eh. I got that wrapped up fairly quickly, and I figured I'd try and entertain myself."
Oh, that was never a good sign, she thought.
A moment later, she was proven right. And hung her head.
***
Arisugawa Juri eyed the shortsword cautiously. It didn't _look_ to be out of the ordinary, though the quality was surprising given the obviously rough craftsmanship.
And it was old.
She didn't know how, but she knew this.
A single-edged blade that was meant for hacking rather than slicing, a short and plainly wrapped hilt with a bronze ring on the end ...
Alright. She was willing to ... entertain ... the concept that what she'd been told was at least somewhat truthful.
She calmed herself, forcibly at first, but then falling into that semi-meditative place she habitually visited when she fenced, that 'zone', with ease. Perhaps a bit too much ease?
And she gasped, her mind suddenly 'clicking', facts coming together, deceptions being ignored. A presence, kind, honorable, just, seemed to guide her thoughts ...
To see with eyes unclouded by hate.
The description didn't do it justice.
Then she was forcibly thrown out of the state, dropping the sword, as an explosion sounded in the distance.
***
Shizuru gaped. Then she hung her head. Yes, now the insufferably smug expression made sense.
She turned to Katz, giving him a mild glare of exasperation, even as the unmistakable flash of a detonated plasma warhead faded from overhead.
"You blew up the planetarium."
"Well, no. Not really."
She continued glaring. He continued grinning.
"Vaporized would be more accurate, I think. I'm pretty sure I got who I was aiming for too. The biometrics sensor on that detonator was pretty accurate."
Once upon a time, when they'd been discussing this particular setting, she'd asked him what he'd do if they were ever to find themselves there.
'Bomb the Deputy Chairman's Office' had seemed like such a harmlessly flippant reply to her back then, when she hadn't known him as well as she did now.
Oh, and sorry for the hijack, Nate. It seemed appropriate, since you like the setting and that arm was a Noble Phantasm, which sort of qualified it for the position of Epic Artifact.
Or is it too much of an asspull?
OTOH, if _this_ Folken and _that_ Vaan were in the same timeline ... *chuckles*
-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
It's mostly the reason I had Kuga do the delivery, since he would have insisted he deal with any '32 related ones, even if it wasn't one to 'his' timeline.
The rest of that reason being that, for all her Tsundereness and attitude, she's a lot more restrained than Katz/Katsu in certain settings. The Guardians or Powers or what you will know better than to send or direct him into a particular sort of setting.
Hmm. *snicker* Amusing thought, ...
That had been amusing, if nothing else. Familiar with the setting as I was, I'd never really gone out of my way with interest for it.
The prosthetic had been interesting, from an academic point of view ... and it was inventive of them to work through someone I trusted not to screw me over. To a certain extent, anyway.
Yes, I'm paranoid. It's in the job description.
The set of instructions and impropmtu demonstration Caster ... hmm, I guess I should get used to calling him Nathan ... had given me on how to connect and calibrate the damn thing - he said it was an older model of the one he was using - was worth the trip on its own, in any case. Enlightening in quite a number of ways. Not to mention the whole 'touching base with an acquaintance' factor.
Maybe they were trying to make up for that whole Ryvius mess. Well, they were on the right track.
Speaking of which, tracking the 'target' down hadn't been difficult. Just a matter of following the roars.
Big lizards. Big fire-breathing lizards. Big fire-breathing lizareds that also happened to be empaths. What fun.
Makes me wish I'd gone through the briefing a bit more thoroughly - I should have picked up on the fact that they wouldn't be aggressive unless in response to aggression shown in the first place. Oh well.
They weren't exactly complex minds, inherent physical power aside, and Terror works best on those.
I found a relatively secure spot of a cave a quarter of an hour's flight away from there, after I'd stilled the kid's bleeding and stopped the nerve endings from dying, and set about connecting the arm. Didn't take long. The change was immediately obvious, as the enchantments woven into the prosthetic worked against the trauma of the injury.
I didn't extend my stay for much longer after that, and left right after he woke up. Well, maybe not _right_ after, but soon enough for government work.
Besides, I wanted to check in on how Shizuru's part in this whole thing was going.
***
The white-haired man disappeared, leaving the equally white-haired boy with far more questions than answers, and a new arm to replace the one he'd so recently lost - something the shock of he was still working through hours afterwards.
Still, the words that had been spoken to him echoed in his mind, and rather than traumatized he was ... considering. Evaluating.
Luck is a poor substitute for skill, and fortune's a fickle bitch no matter how you try to tame her. Predestination is a crock. Lastly - and bear with me, because this is important - ideals are all well and good, but don't let them blind you, or you'll wake up one morning and loathe the person you see looking back at you from the mirror. Most of all, though ... enojoy life. Otherwise, whatever you do with it will be meaningless in the end.
He ... he had a brother who looked up to him. And people who relied on him. A mother who loved him.
The realization that he'd been considering going into exile after this ... failure ... came, and was savagely beaten down.
By the time he was feeling up to traveling, Folken Lacour de Fanel had come to several decisions. He wouldn't be king. It wasn't ... it wasn't _him_. There was something else out there for him, but that something would require effort, work, and a clear mind. For now, though, he would return home.
Nothing quite drove home the importance of family like a near-death experience did, and he did want to muse further upon the nature of the beast that had nearly taken his life ... in a setting that offered proper perspective.
***
Another place, another time, another world
Shizuru found she was enjoying herself immensly. Likely, she would have done so even if she were to only take in the ambience.
There was just something about Ohtori Academy that spoke to her.
Also, she'd just enjoyed an insight into one of her favorite 'characters', despite the conversation's abrupt nature.
She'd been that edgy once, she realized, before she'd found her equilibrium. A somewhat skewed one, but an equilibrium nonetheless.
The 'gift' she'd been sent to deliver had been recieved with more than a fair dose of skepticism, but then again, Arisugawa-san had never been one to believe in miracles, or unexpected boons, or the like.
That was alright, though. She'd most likely try to follow the scientific method in this case, which would still yield positive results.
"Having fun?" a familiar voice asked, from slightly off to the side. She didn't startle, having become used to her ... acquaintance's? friend's? traveling companions? ... habits. Popping up unannounced in some of the oddest places being one of those.
Katz, which was the first name she'd known him to use and the one she most often labeled him with, was sitting on a small flight of steps leading down to the currently empty track field. He was also fiddling with a trio of roses ...
He noticed the stare and shrugged.
"Yeah, I ran across someone with a habit of handing these out."
One was purple, though faintly tinted with shimmering azure. The second almost shone, paradoxically enough, _black_, with red running along the edges of the petals. The last one, which seemed to occupy more than a fair bit of his attention, looked like it had been cast from bronze at first sight. It caught the light in a most curious way.
"Why exactly are you here? Shouldn't you be off on your own part of this errand?"
"Eh. I got that wrapped up fairly quickly, and I figured I'd try and entertain myself."
Oh, that was never a good sign, she thought.
A moment later, she was proven right. And hung her head.
***
Arisugawa Juri eyed the shortsword cautiously. It didn't _look_ to be out of the ordinary, though the quality was surprising given the obviously rough craftsmanship.
And it was old.
She didn't know how, but she knew this.
A single-edged blade that was meant for hacking rather than slicing, a short and plainly wrapped hilt with a bronze ring on the end ...
Alright. She was willing to ... entertain ... the concept that what she'd been told was at least somewhat truthful.
She calmed herself, forcibly at first, but then falling into that semi-meditative place she habitually visited when she fenced, that 'zone', with ease. Perhaps a bit too much ease?
And she gasped, her mind suddenly 'clicking', facts coming together, deceptions being ignored. A presence, kind, honorable, just, seemed to guide her thoughts ...
To see with eyes unclouded by hate.
The description didn't do it justice.
Then she was forcibly thrown out of the state, dropping the sword, as an explosion sounded in the distance.
***
Shizuru gaped. Then she hung her head. Yes, now the insufferably smug expression made sense.
She turned to Katz, giving him a mild glare of exasperation, even as the unmistakable flash of a detonated plasma warhead faded from overhead.
"You blew up the planetarium."
"Well, no. Not really."
She continued glaring. He continued grinning.
"Vaporized would be more accurate, I think. I'm pretty sure I got who I was aiming for too. The biometrics sensor on that detonator was pretty accurate."
Once upon a time, when they'd been discussing this particular setting, she'd asked him what he'd do if they were ever to find themselves there.
'Bomb the Deputy Chairman's Office' had seemed like such a harmlessly flippant reply to her back then, when she hadn't known him as well as she did now.
Oh, and sorry for the hijack, Nate. It seemed appropriate, since you like the setting and that arm was a Noble Phantasm, which sort of qualified it for the position of Epic Artifact.
Or is it too much of an asspull?
OTOH, if _this_ Folken and _that_ Vaan were in the same timeline ... *chuckles*
-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