Chapter Text
They have been here for three days now.
Rudo kept his distance from the cleaners for the first day, but midway through the second he approached Gris. After that he seemed more comfortable around them. At least enough to show up.
Today was the first day Guardian had stood up and started to walk somewhere.
Zanka overheard how they had a plan, but only Rudo and his trash beast companion seemed to know it. For some reason they hadn’t told anyone what it was yet.
So he has been following Rudo around as carefully as he could. The most he has seen is the kid fixing up random beasts, searching for items, or working on his projects.
However the moment Guardian stopped and laid down somewhere, Rudo vanished.
Zanka tried to follow him, but by the time he got down on the ground he saw Rudo was already far in the distance riding a totally different trash beast.
He hadn’t been outside in a while, so a new big trash beast looming over him was a shock. It resembled a tree more than a beast, and even at a distance he could see all sorts of smaller and medium sized creatures moving around it.
It was mesmerizing and rather beautiful. However, both Enjin and Ragdoll had separately asked him to keep an eye on Rudo. He was failing rather badly, so he trudges through the trash towards the big beast. Creatures that he was sure would attack him not only a year ago were either ignoring him or staring curiously.
Up ahead, he saw Rudo petting a rather big looking cat with saws for teeth. Even from here Zanka could see that Rudo looked slightly happy.
Then red eyes locked onto him, and the anger was back.
“Do you have a habit of following me, asshole?” Rudo growls out.
He always came off as unfriendly and aggressive, but not once has Zanka felt threatened. Even when they were fighting, he hadn’t been worried for his staff despite the usual anxiety of not having it on him. He just had this strange gut feeling that Rudo wouldn’t harm any of their jinkis and give them back eventually.
So seeing him try to be as unapproachable as possible reminded him of a kitten when it hisses and tries to look threatening, and while it was scared, just wanted someone safe.
“Am I not allowed to worry about you?” Zanka walked up to him, glancing at the cat. “Who is this?”
“My second friend.” Rudo holds up his hand. “Don’t approach her.”
Zanka raises his eyebrow but trusts him, so he stays back.
Rudo stares at him, then turns and tries to walk away.
“I’m not done with this conversation.” Zanka says, trying to go after him. The big cat stares down at him, its mouth opening and eyes locked on his staff.
He sees it go to eat her and jumps out of the way, holding Lovely behind him as he narrows his eyes at the cat. This is the first time in months that a beast is trying to fight him, so he hadn’t expected it.
Zanka pushes off the trash and dodged a bite from the beast easily, but he doesn’t activate Lovely. The cat turns and makes a hissing like noises from the saws and lunges at him.
“Rudo why the fuck is the cat attacing me?!” Zanka shouts out at him as he pulls his staff close and dodges the attack. Was this a test of some kind, or was this beast actually trying to kill them?
He wheezes when a paw is slammed into him and pins him down. He can’t move and it lowers down, yellow eyes baring into him.
A plank of wood is thrown at its head and clatters to the ground. Its focus instantly shifts to that and it tries to swat at it, but the plank is yanked away by a string.
The cat forgets Zanka exists and follows after it, jumping or pawing at it as it gets further away.
Zanka sits up and sees Rudo sitting on the tree beast reeling in the string attached to the plank until its hovering in the air with the beast having to stand on its hind legs to catch then eat it.
Rudo looks over at him finally. “It eats wood and thought your staff was a toy.” He said simply.
Zanka grips Lovely harder to protect her better. “Tell it she is off limits.”
Rudo looks down at the cat and swings his legs. “Just hit her nose if she tries again. If that doesn’t work, just activate it. She’s scared of that.”
He doesn’t want it to have to come to that, but he understands. Zanka looked around and watched a few snake rope beasts climbing up the tree, and some rabbit looking creatures chasing fox ones.
However there were more that didn’t resemble animals in any regard. Some had super long arms or legs with smaller bodies. One was a ball with big yellow eyes and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth.
One was some type of taller stick with a chain neck and a beak like head clearly used to slam down on something and split it open. Zanka was transfixed by how unique these beasts were.
Where have they all been? He’s only ever seen a handful of them, usually the blind beasts that roam around, but now they are so diverse.
Was it because they weren’t killing them now? Or did these ones learn to hide out of sight like the wheeled ones?
Zanka watches one thats made up of just wires holding itself together approach a trash beast made out of dirty cardboard and plastic. It picks the smaller up and checks it over, then carries it nearby and finds some dried boxes that it picks up and attaches to the beast.
They don’t express reactions, but even Zanka can tell this is some type of tender care, and that they are happy. They all seem rather relaxed.
Except Rudo.
The wired beast sets the cardboard one down and goes over to Rudo and picks him up. It’s yellow eyes stare into him, trying to figure out what needs to be given to him.
Zanka follows it as it goes deeper into the landfill away from the tree. He doesn’t know why Rudo isn’t trying to escape from it, but this is a good learning opportunity.
He sees it dig around the trash then picks up a can of food and presses it against his face. Rudo takes it and puts it in his hood, not saying a word. The wired beast grabs a metal cylinder and attaches it to one of Rudo’s arms near his shoulder. That seems to finally satisfy it, so it sets him down and leaves to go find another beast to help.
Rudo sits down and doesn’t move.
Zanka walks over to him and sits beside him, resting Lovely in his lap. He knows Rudo isn’t going to speak first, so he does. “I understood nothing of what has happened the entire time I’ve been here. They just.. Do things.”
Rudo takes out the can of field peas and stares at it. “It’s how they see me. A broken trash beast that needs cans to ‘recover’.. Trash on the outside, meat on the inside.” He shakes the can, listening to the water in it.
That made sense to Zanka since people aren’t items. “But you’re not trash.”
The glare he gets is cold.
“When I say trash I don’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just another word for these items, the things that make them up. I’m not calling myself trash..” Rudo doesn’t know how to phrase it. He is trash and sees himself as such, but not in a bad way. These beasts are trash just as people are flesh and bone.
“They can tell you’re upset, you know?” Zanka says softly. “I think they are worried about you in their own way.”
“How the hell would you know that?” Rudo growls out. He runs his hands over his gloves slowly, not meeting eyes with Zanka. “I don’t know what to do.”
Zanka stares at his gloves, then to Rudo’s face where he can see the stress visibly weighing on him. Before, even when fighting him, he just saw a chaotic kid, but Rudo looked like he belonged and was happy here.
He knew how his sister was and how she ran the Hell Guard. He knew what to say and do if he was Rudo to get her on their side, but he isn’t Rudo.
“What’s your plan?”
Rudo frowns and fidgets with the ring on the back of his glove. “I haven’t told Reg– Ragdoll. His plan is for me and him to go and talk to them. I want to just turn myself in if it means they don’t attack any of the beasts.”
Zanka gives him a blank stare. He knows where Rudo is coming from, but that was stupid.
“What is Ragdoll?”
It’s quiet.
Rudo looks more sad than distressed now.
“I know what we can do. I’ll tell you something.” Zanka scoots to sit in front of him. Rudo glances his way, then to the side. He’s listening at least. “The leader of the Hell Guard is my sister. To make this short, I left and that upset her, but I know how to talk to her.”
Rudo’s eyes snapped up to him showing shock for a moment. He moves his hands to dig through the trash nearby mindlessly. “Ragdoll is my dad who was murdered. His real name is Regto.”
He waits for Zanka’s reaction. Instead of anger from keeping a secret or shock, Zanka just snorts.
“Damn, I could have guessed that somewhat at least. Ragd– Regto really acts like your dad.” He inhales slowly then crosses his arms. “Frankly, your and your dads ideas are stupid. No wonder you refused to tell us.” Before Rudo can get mad, he holds out his hand to offer a handshake.
“If you trust all of us, then we can make this work. You won’t have to worry about your friends and family, and we won’t have to worry about trash beasts.”
Rudo looks down at his hand, then back up to his face.
He has to learn to trust people if he is going to save the beasts.
Rudo takes his hand and shakes it.
Rudo already didn’t like people, but this was by far the scariest person he has ever met in his life.
Kyouka was tall, intimidating, and looked like she was constantly on the verge of killing anyone who crossed her.
Zanka had drilled it into his head to be respectful and mind himself, and that was fine, but he was truly terrified she’d find a way to kill Regto here and now despite not being a giver herself.
Zanka had gone up to meet the Hell Guard days ago to schedule a time and place for them to meet. Outside of their city and not within the landfill so it was a neutral zone for all of them.
Despite arriving early, the Hell Guard was already there. Knowing his sister, she had been here potentially for a day just to be here first.
Kyouka is staring down at Rudo with a deeply cold expression. She wholly thinks he is controlling all of the beasts, and even if he is making them passive, at a moment's notice he could start using them to attack innocent people.
Zanka knew his sister wasn’t much of a talker, but neither her or Rudo has said a single word to one another yet, and it's been almost three minutes. Some kind of subtle nonverbal conversation is happening between them that even Regto hasn’t interfered with.
Finally, Kyouka’s shoulders move back just slightly under her big coat. “I was informed you were a giver, but was withheld the information of your item.”
Rudo stares at her, then glances down to his gloves. It’s a trick question, really. She has figured out what it is, this is her testing if he’d be honest. “My gloves are.” He looks back up at her, her red hair is striking as it is terrifying, but he isn’t scared for himself. “I can activate any item to make it do what I need for the task at hand.”
Zanka’s proud of him for memorizing what he told him to say to her. He doesn’t let that show. When Rudo had explained his giver power to him, it came out more like I dunno, I just activate shit and it helps me.
Kyouka looks Rudo over, her eyes landing on all the strange and unique trash stuck to his clothes. All of them were artistic, clearly gifts, but made out of random items. She shifts her weight and tilts her head up by a millimeter. “If they work as you say, then you should have no problem wearing these.”
She holds up two silver bracelet bands made out of a fine metal.
Rudo glances at Zanka since he had not been told what this was, then back to her. “It will help you trust me, right?”
He doesn’t get a response, just a stone faced stare that conveys no clear emotion.
For Rudo, trash beasts are easy to read now. Even when he first dropped down here he could at least guess they were conveying something he didn’t understand, but with Kyouka he is genuinely getting nothing.
He reaches out and takes them from her offered hand and snaps them on over his gloves. He still has free movement, but he notices that his connection to his anima was suddenly blocked as if a dam appeared out of nowhere. He can’t help but glare at them. “So I can’t activate them.”
“Correct.” Kyouka finally turns to look at the cloth beast that’s been lingering near Rudo watching her cautiously. This one was the most humanoid she has ever seen, and had features that mimicked them too, such as metal eyelids.
She turns away from Rudo and approaches it outright, glowering down at it. It has no way to attack her. No metal claws or a mouth with sharp teeth, and made out of burlap it would be easy to cut with something as simple as scissors. Did he bring this one to show they could be soft and cuddly?
The beast moves and offers her a paper.
Kyouka stares down at it before plucking it from its strange hands. Turning it over reads Thank you for meeting with us, Kyouka. You can call me Ragdoll. I am sentient, but can only write.
Her brows furrow just a bit. A pre-written note? So easily forced, especially if Rudo is the one controlling it. She looks back to the boy. Even if he is scrawny, he’s full of anger, and that anger is used to protect these.. Creatures.
“This is not evidence you control the beasts.” She stands in front of him. With his powers cut off, she expected a bigger change.
In the distance, she can see the beast the kid lives on laying down, its yellow eyes staring in their direction. Neither it nor the beast beside the kid deactivated or started to act like the beasts did just a year ago.
“There’s no such thing as controlling them.” Rudo stands up a bit taller. “And even if I could use my powers to do so, there’s clear limits. I can’t tell thousands of beasts to never attack people all day every day. Even if I could, I have to touch something to activate it.”
Kyouka’s eyes snapped to the beast beside him because it pulled out some paper and a pen and was writing while Rudo was speaking.
It shouldn’t be able to do that at all.
She’s offered another paper, so this time she takes it a bit more cautiously.
I have done research on these beasts for a long time. They usually are items that have activated themselves in a way. It’s more complicated than that, but Rudo is just a kid who began to live among them and change them.
“How?” She looks up at the beast. It is certainly communicating to her. “And do prove you are of independent thought.”
Yellow eyes stare at her, then its eyelids lower as it focuses on writing.
She turns back to Rudo. “You began living here a year ago. Why?”
“Where I came from hated me.” Rudo crosses his arms while outright glaring at her, but it isn’t out of hate. It’s his way of being serious. “I was banished, so I decided people are assholes, and just never left.” His stare turns a bit more angry. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Kyouka knew he wasn’t telling the full truth and being vague on purpose, and truthfully she did not care for his story as long as he was being honest.
The beast beside him looked up as it finished writing and handed her the paper.
They see him as one of them. Not necessarily made out of items, but of something to take care of. These beings tend to one another as much as they fight one another. Rudo’s gloves are a Watchman item which I am aware you know about, but he does not. If I am being controlled by him like you think, then I only know stuff he does.
Kyouka narrows her eyes at the creature, then glances to Rudo’s gloves. Of course she knew what they were the moment she saw them. It’s what made her truly think he could tame these beasts. Such an item of power is terrifying in that way.
Rudo sends Regto a confused look, silently asking him what he is writing to her.
“You are not living in the trash fields anymore.” She stares down at the kid. Even if he isn’t, no one should survive like this.
The anger flairs up instantly. “Just because you think I’m a threat? If I leave a lot of my friends are going to slowly die off! I can’t just leave them!” Rudo snaps out.
“And you propose what, then?” Kyouka tilts her head to the side just slightly. “I let a child roam free to beasts that will either kill him or obey him? You want them to live, yes? So leave them.” She watches how the kid reacts. He’s outright glaring with rage and his teeth are out as well as a more defensive position.
He’s reacting exactly like she expected.
“If someone pisses you off, you can just take that thing,” She glances at the big beast miles away still watching them. “And walk over them, run through a town, rip them apart.”
“You really think that, don’t you?” Rudo’s voice is eerily quiet. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a metal wire kitsune and holds it out for her to look at. “You think I activate them and they do my bidding.” Rudo turns on his heel. “Then I will fucking show you what you’re so blind to look at.”
Regto does a double take then runs after him, trying to stop him, but Rudo just shrugs him off.
Kyouka gives it a moment, then follows after him, trailing behind as they approach the landfill where the dry ground begins to taper to trash.
Rudo crouches down and sets it in the field carefully then steps back. The dusty trash begins to shift and come to life around the item, encompassing it until it's out of view. Old plastic bags, metal rods, rusted frames, boxes and more twist and take the form of a kitsune with several tails.
The first thing it does is stretch and shake its head. A metallic bird lands on one of its ears that flick it off, so it lands on its head and flutters its wings before settling down and picking at some of the surface level trash, flicking away any rotting food.
Rudo points at Kyouka while looking at the beasts. “Go deal with her.”
The kitsune sits down and scratches below its ear, kicking off a plastic bag when it does.
Kyouka walks up to Rudo until she is behind him. She quickly pulls a blade out and pins Rudo, holding it against him firmly while staring at the beasts.
Neither of them react in the slightest, but Rudo tenses up. “What the fuck–?!” When it presses closer he shuts up.
The only one that reacted was the cloth one, but the most it was doing was glaring at her. She didn’t think it could attack so paid it no mind. She pulls the blade away and watches Rudo stumble away then growl at her.
“I don’t know how else to prove to you none of us are a threat!” He goes and tries to yank the bracelets off of himself but they are locked on.
Kyouka sighs silently and approaches the kid. He tries to punch her, but she swiftly grabs his wrist and twists his arm behind and down. She takes out a key and undoes one bracelet, then the other.
“Everyone has always known trash beasts to attack on sight.” Kyouka says simply. “And yet within a year you show up and alter their behaviour. How would anyone else not come to the conclusion you control them?”
Before Rudo can argue back, she takes the bracelets and puts them in her pocket. “It’s evident you don’t, but that does not mean you are not a threat.” She stares down at him. Really, his fury and determination to protect them is not unlike a warriors oath in a sense. “We will need to establish a truce, written and planned out.”
Rudo visibly relaxes a bit but is still nervous. “Is that.. Good?”
Kyouka ignores him and looks back at the cloth creature. “Unlike this one, you seem to be the rational one.” She walks over to it. “If you can meet with us again in a month, we can both draft up a contract of sorts; rules to abide by and hold one another accountable.”
The creatures yellow eyes narrow curiously. It writes one sentence, then shows her.
What is the stipulation?
It is really smart. More so than the kid. Logical and concise, too.
“That he stay with us for a month. Not in a prison, but unable to contact or be aware of what the trash beasts are doing. This is to show me that he truly does not dictate them, and that the moment he is gone they revert back to hostile creatures.”
She is a bit interested to see that the cloth creature is against this whereas Rudo walks back over to her with the kitsune following. “I think that’s fine, but only if no one goes and attacks them.”
“Then it seems we have a deal.” Kyouka glances to the cloth creature, then to Rudo. “Are you prepared?”
Rudo looks at Regto who is very against this, but also can’t argue this may be the best option they have. Behind Regto and a few feet away he can see Zanka, Enjin, Gris, Riyo, and Tomme near the car they drove here in as support and backup if needed. He doesn’t need to grab anything, so he nods to Kyouka.
Rudo just hopes this was the right decision, because despite actually being scared for himself now, he doesn’t show it.
He turns away from Regto and follows Kyouka away from them.
Rudo is sitting at a wooden desk going through a massive pile of papers he was given two days ago. It’s taken him a while to read through because despite it being legible, understanding it is another task in itself.
There’s simple rules like not randomly attacking one or the other, self defense, precautions if something happens, and more. Then there’s the weird instances Rudo doesn’t get such as if something calls the watchman starts moving.
He finally gets to the end and scribbles down his name, then rests his head on the table.
It’s been nearly a full month.
Every minute sucked.
He was alone, not a single familiar soul in sight, and they wouldn’t even let him root through their trash.
Still, he got to have fresh food every day, and Kyouka came by often to update him that nothing in the trash beasts has changed.Rudo got the impression she was secretly nice but would never express it.
He crosses his arms on the table and sighs, staring out of the window he had in his room. It’s night, and tomorrow they were finally meeting back up with his family to do a meeting and present the contract. Rudo already knows his dad probably hasn’t slept at all and drafted his own for her to read.
He doesn’t get the point of all this adult bullshit, but if it truly means he never has to worry about people again, then it’s worth it.
“You know, you’re stupid.” Is the first thing he hears from Zanka when he sees him again.
No one but his dad and Kyouka are allowed to be in on their meeting, so he’s sitting off to the side while still anxious and angry. “Shut up, no I’m not.”
“You gave none of us time to say no to your decision! Do you know how worried Regto’s been? I don’t think I saw him look away from any paper that entire time!” Zanka chastises.
Rudo shoots him a glare and looks back to where Kyouka and his dad are still negotiating. It’s boring and it stresses him out, but he was never going to leave even if he wanted to. Not until his dad was done. Then they could go home and hopefully be safe with no assholes to bother them.
Wait.
“You.. did you stay on Guardian that whole time?”
Tomme clears her throat. “No, but we did visit very often. Gris often stayed for several days at a time. All of the trash beasts were alright, though a lot of them have been anxious.”
Rudo gives her a confused look. “What?”
“They keep searching the landfill for you. Guardian hasn’t left or moved once, and a lot of beasts have shown up to continue the search.” Tomme looks back towards the landfill. It’s farther away than last time, so even Guardian is a speck in the distance.
“I can see why you decided to live with these guys.” Riyo pipes up. “They are super nice. It just sucks about no running water or fresh food. When’s the last time you took a shower?” She pokes his head.
Rudo slaps her hand away and huffs. “I bathe! And they’ve been making me bathe at least twice a week here anyway.” He pulls his legs up and sighs.
A moment later the familiar talons of the metal bird lands on his head.
He reaches up and pulls it close. Rudo hasn’t seen any beast in weeks except his dad at a distance just now. It chirps in his hands and settles down. Rudo pets its back softly. “Do you think they will be done soon?”
“Not at all.” Zanka crosses his arms. “Kyouka is very thorough, and Regto’s been at it for a while.”
Rudo shoots him a look.
“It wasn’t my decision to tell them that is your dad. I know you told Kyouka.” Zanka shrugs. He hadn’t said a thing. Regto had just told Gris to inform the others since it was important to get them on board at least, especially with eventually informing Kyouka.
They hear some distant thuds. Rudo is the first to look over to see that Guardian has stood up and is making its way over here.
Gris gets up and pulls his keys out. “Let's go visit Guardian before it gets too close.” He reaches out and pats Rudo’s head. “Your dad will be alright, Enjin will stay back to watch.”
“I will?” “Yes, you will.” Gris says more firmly.
Rudo glances back over to them and sees Kyouka busy talking about something while Regto is writing something down, stakes of papers are around them.
He gets in the car with Riyo and Zanka and Gris drives off towards the landfill before it could get close enough to potentially threaten Kyouka.
He really hopes things are going to work out.
A deep rumbling wakes him up.
Rudo can feel the weight on his chest before he even opens his eyes. He looks down to see that Red is standing on top of him as if it was a lookout of some kind. He gently pushes his friend off and sits up.
Guardian was telling them they were arriving to their destination.
He stands up and dusts himself off then goes to look for his dad which didn’t take that long. He had made a nook in the cavern that resembled a library. Rudo had made him the bookshelves and desk he uses.
Rudo walked over to him and sits beside him at the desk. Yellow eyes looked up from what he was writing and upturned, his version of a smile.
“You can’t act all innocent.” Rudo huffs out. “I told you to wake me up in an hour.”
Regto gives an innocent shrug, the burlap and leather lifting up and down, saying I forgot, I was too absorbed in my books! Which was a bull faced lie if Rudo ever saw one.
“You owe me.” Rudo pointed at him accusatorily.
All annoyance for his dad evaporated the second he was given a piece of candy. Appeased, Rudo eats it while glancing at what he was writing. Some kind of note to the cleaners. His dad really liked to pre-write topics before arriving somewhere.
“Are we going to have our usual meeting?” Rudo asked boredly.
Ever since they got the situation handled and understood, they’ve had to attend meetings and updates about what was going on. Rudo detested it, but Regto’s explained it to him several times how important it is.
Still, there have been no incidents with trash beasts except if people provoked them first. Rudo’s even fixed up all of them that he could over the months, so it’s rare any of the beasts come by for help.
Now they seem to follow Guardian sometimes, especially if they are in their territory, but in a friendly and curious way.
Regto gets up and holds the papers, then nudges Rudo as a silent way to tell him to get moving.
Rudo grumbles a bit and follows him to the top of Guardian. He can see headquarters up ahead but was still some ways out. He feels a paper being put in his hands and takes it from his dad.
I’m proud of you for everything you have done.
Rudo puts the paper in his pocket and glares into the distance. “I didn’t do shit, I know you’re proud of me.”
Apparently he was predictable, because Regto handed him another page with a pre-written message.
Rudo side eyed him before taking it and reading it.
I don’t need a reason to be proud of you, but I’ll still list some things. For being brave against all odds, for being empathetic to creatures that were not understood before, for being patient with me despite your attitude, and for what you did to help all of us.
Then, below it at the bottom of the paper was one sentence.
You’re the best son ever. Brat.
Rudo felt his heart squeeze, but he rolled his eyes and moved over to Regto and hugged him gently, pressing his face into the rough burlap. “You’re a sappy old fart.” He couldn’t help but dry laugh just a bit when he felt his dads hand ruffle his hair hard, rattling his brain.
Really, he was happy now. He had his dad with him, lived with the trash beasts, and could visit his friends and family any time he wanted to, even if some like Zanka and Enjin were annoying, he still loved them.
Despite everything that happened, he’s glad things turned out this way.