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Kozume Kenma sighed. He really didn’t feel like going on a quest today. But his boyfriend, Kuroo Tetsurou, had insisted. He had been lamenting about needing a new hooded mantle for their future B-rank quests. Kenma surmised that it was just because Kuroo had seen one that used a Phoenix feather to enchant it with flame attributes. Kenma couldn’t deny that it would look nice with Kuroo’s usual red outfit though, so he didn’t argue too much. That didn’t mean Kenma wouldn’t complain while they were doing the quest that day. They didn’t even know what quests were available, but since they were a C-ranked duo party, they could take many different quests. There was bound to be something with a high reward.
By the time they got to the Adventure Guild, Kenma was already tired. He hadn’t gotten much sleep, he had been practicing one of his newer spells. Him and his boyfriend comprised of many offensive tactics. Although Kenma was a light mage, he could not use many healing spells. His strongest attribute was water, which suited him just fine. They never had to worry about drinking water, since that was one of the first spells Kenma leveled up to become a divine power. He could manipulate the water around him in the air, to make it so that they would never get rained on, and even to solidify it, not unlike ice. Kenma could also use a couple of different wind spells, but they were not as powerful as his water.
Kuroo though, not many adventurers knew, was a Were-cat. But Kenma used the word ‘cat’ very loosely, the giant berserker beast that Kuroo transformed into could hardly resemble a cute little feline. He had only seen his boyfriend fully transform a handful of times, usually he just augmented his strength through magical means. Being a Were-cat gave him an unfair advantage with strengthening magics. But Kenma digresses.
He and Kuroo began looking at the board that had all the different quests posted by rank, A-rank at the top, while the E and F-ranks were lower to the bottom of the board. Kenma heard an exclamation from Kuroo, “Kenma! They have a B-rank that is just scouting and has a really high reward, let’s do this one!”
Kenma wasn’t about to complain about regular scouting. To get the details, they would need to ask the receptionist. They took the medium-sized card with the quest written on it to the desk where their receptionist, Yachi Hitoka, stood. They made pleasantries, Kenma always liked talking to Yachi because she didn’t push him if he needed Kuroo to do most of the talking, until she saw which quest they had.
Yachi’s expression turned a little disgruntled, “This is scouting for an earth dragon, apparently one was spotted on the very edge of the country’s territory.” Kenma nodded, that sounded easy enough. They didn’t have to fight it, just find it. Kenma was good at sneaking around, and Kuroo was a master of stealth. She continued, “The thing is, the guild master wants a team of four to do it, not just pairs. So, you guys have to either wait until two other people take up the quest or you can pick a different one.”
Just then, Kenma heard a yell from behind him and Kuroo, “Bakagayama! Someone took our quest! We gotta go find them!” Kenma silently hoped that the person didn’t mean the quest they had just brought to Yachi, because he could tell that man was going to bring headaches to him.
Kenma sighed as he and Kuroo turned to observe the pair that had just gotten to the quest board. The first thought that went through Kenma’s head was, ‘Orange’, because the one that had yelled had a head of bright orange hair. It was slightly obstructed with a light blue wing that spread behind the man’s hair. Kenma was surprised by the bright blue bird that sat perched on the man’s shoulder, but before Kenma could think any more, the other man dubbed, ‘Bakagayama’, snapped, “Shut up, stupid!”
Kenma could hear the snicker from Kuroo, he didn’t need to turn his head to see it. Kenma did see that the one with orange hair had rushed up to the receptionist counter. Kenma looked at Yachi to see how she would take getting swamped by the orange-headed man, but she seemed like she was used to it, “Hitoka-chan! Did someone already take that dragon-hunting quest?!”
Kenma shuffled away from the counter a little bit, not wanting to be present for when ‘Bakagayama’ also sauntered up to the counter. He saw that Kuroo was more amused than anything, and Kenma heard himself click his tongue before he could really stop it. He wanted to go back home, “We don’t have to do the quest if you don’t want to, Kenma, let’s go. We’ll pick a different quest, Yachi-chan~.”
Kenma heard a squawk as he began walking back to the quest board to find something that wasn’t being head-hunted by high-energized folks when the bright blue bird from the orange-haired man’s shoulder landed on his own. The bird let out a trill as Kenma glanced over, wary of moving any more. It was beautiful, with a light blue plumage that seemed to shine. It had feathers sticks up above its head, and three tail feathers that settled behind it like a cape.
“What’s gotten into Yuki, you didn’t forget to feed him, did you, Hinata?” ‘Bakagayama’ sounded as if he were trying to pick a fight, but also like this was completely normal, like it was every day that their bird flew over and sat on a stranger’s shoulder. Just then, Kenma had a full view of the orange hair that he had been trying to avoid, “Yuki! Are you making friends?”
Kenma felt Kuroo behind him, ready to intervene, but the other man simply smiled and stuck his hand out to Kenma, “Whoever is a friend of Yuki is a friend of mine! I’m Hinata Shouyou!”
Kenma didn’t have any time to register the greeting from this Hinata Shouyou, before the dubbed man ‘Bakagayama’ was slapping the hand down, “Stupid! Don’t you see that you’re bothering these adventurers?” By now Hinata had grumbled a bit, but he looked a little sheepish. The bird was still on Kenma’s shoulder, but it wasn’t an intrusive presence like he knew some birds had.
“Kenma-san! If you don’t mind, you four can do the quest!” Yachi’s voice sounded behind Kenma, a welcomed sound ever since he and Kuroo had been taking guild quests when they first became a team. What followed was an awkward introduction from everyone involved. Kageyama Tobio was the other man with Hinata Shouyou, it was good that Kenma could stop calling him ‘Bakagayama’ in his mind.
The four of them agreed to do the quest together, even though Kenma secretly thought that Hinata’s presence would not be very good with sneaking. He would just have to trust in his group’s ability to hide from sight and hope that maybe the dragon was deaf. Their quest companions were interesting, to say the least.
Hinata Shouyou was a beast tamer, and his bird, Yuki, was actually an ice phoenix. He had never seen a phoenix before, and contrary to what he had believed, they were not all that rare either. It usually just took an exorbitant amount of effort to get them to agree to become a familiar. The fact that Yuki flew over and ‘made friends’ with Kenma, that had solidified in Hinata’s mind that he and Kuroo were trustworthy, otherwise Yuki would not have flown over to them.
Kageyama Tobio was a dark mage, fittingly enough, so it really balanced out their team of four. He specialized in shadow magic, which translated into being able to make shadow golems that he uses to fight with. It was an interesting usage of magic, also the fact that they were both completely mesmerized by Kenma’s water magic, that they maybe didn’t realize how odd and unique their fortes were. They were also completely mesmerized by Kuroo’s strengthening magics, the first time they encountered monsters outside the town and Kuroo defeated a blood wolf barehanded, they were both shocked.
Kenma could admit that he himself was mesmerized when he saw Yuki send out a bolt of pure ice to spear its own blood wolf. Kageyama didn’t even need to bring out his own shadow golems, he had looked a bit miffed that he didn’t get any kills, while Kenma told him that he would save a blood wolf just for him next time, which made Kageyama stammer and say that he totally should.
They only ended up about halfway to where the report said that the earth dragon was seen before they decided to set up camp a little way away from the road. When Kuroo asked about the guard schedule, Hinata was quick to say, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. Bakagayama uses his golems to keep watch over night. If they sense anything threatening, he gets woken up.”
Kenma couldn’t help smiling at the idea of not having to wake up in the middle of the night to take over watch duty. He thanked Kageyama for his service before sitting in front of the fire to practice his second-tier healing spell. It was mostly the strengthening of the magic itself, since he wasn’t actively trying to heal anything, when he heard a trill from Yuki, and felt the familiar weight of the ice phoenix on his shoulder. It had been happening all day, the phoenix taking turns being on Hinata’s and then Kenma’s shoulder while it wasn’t in the air scouting ahead.
“Are you and Kuroo-san together?” Hinata’s sudden question made Kenma jump a bit, they were by themselves in front of the fire. He knew Kuroo had gone out a bit to see if he could catch anything to hunt, while Kageyama had presumably gone to find more firewood for the night.
He didn’t really see any harm in replying honestly, “Yes. For about five years now. What about you and Kageyama?”
Hinata grinned, “We’ve been together for only about a year now, but we have been around each other for years. We used to hate each other, but it kind of eventually transformed into what we are today!”
Kenma softly told Hinata how he and Kuroo had gotten together. They were childhood friends, but for the longest time Kenma had thought that Kuroo was only his friend because he had been forced to be by his parents. It had taken Kuroo grabbing Kenma by the shoulders and telling him that he liked him for him and not just because their parents were friends, for Kenma to understand. Even then, they hadn’t actually confessed their mutual feelings until Kenma was tired of the unresolved sexual tension after years of silently bearing with it. Kuroo was surprised when Kenma just went up and kissed him one day, and it was history from then on.
Hinata laughed loudly at the story, and even Yuki trilled softly and nipped lightly at Kenma’s ear as if teasing him. By that time, Kageyama had returned with firewood, and following behind him was a shadow golem also carrying firewood, making Kenma compliment him on his success. Kageyama stammered again while he dropped it down into a pile next to where he had taken a seat.
The sun had really started to set by the time Kuroo came back with five rabbits strung on his shoulder. He grinned at the easy comradery that he saw between Kenma and their quest-mates.
It was an easy time for dinner, Kuroo quickly skinned the rabbits, while Kenma used his divine water spell to clean the flesh of blood and gore. Soon enough they were eating together, watching the fire burn bright. Yuki spent an equal amount of time on both Hinata and Kenma’s shoulders, trilling softly.
The night was a calm issue, and by morning Kenma could not remember the last time he felt so well-rested outside of the town. Kageyama had not been awoken during the night, and as Kenma rose and looked about their campsite, he could see a couple of the shadow golems in the distance, still watching the surrounding area.
“Sleep well, Kenma~?” He heard Kuroo come up behind him. Kenma nodded as he tilted his head, silently returning the question as he looked up at his boyfriend. Kuroo grinned, his sharp canines glinting in the sunlight, “I slept like a baby, you only tossed and turned a little bit.”
Kenma had had a pretty big problem with being a restless sleeper ever since he was a kid. It had gotten bad enough that he and Kuroo would have to sleep in separate beds, because otherwise he would end up kicking Kuroo out of the bed over the course of the night. It had gotten a little bit better once they became adventurers, Kuroo had surmised that Kenma was a just a touch anxious about being able to handle the responsibilities of life, and that was why he was so restless. Kenma thought it might just be because he was sedentary all the time, except for when they went on quests.
They had breakfast and were packed up from the night quickly, Kuroo roasted more of the rabbit from the previous night and Kenma had procured some berries and nuts that he knew were edible.
The quest had said the dragon was supposed to be closer to the edge of the country’s territory, but there were no specifics spots that it had been spotted in. The more Kenma thought about it, the quest itself was a little strange. Why would the guild need them to scout an earth dragon that they weren’t even sure was there? Was it because they were afraid the dragon would come closer to the town? Kenma highly doubted the dragon was in the area. He was pulled from his inner monologuing when Kuroo put an arm around Kenma, “Hey, you’ve been silent for a while. You okay?” He sounded concerned, but only slightly. By now Kuroo would be used to Kenma’s silences, he preferred to express himself through his actions rather than his words.
“I’m okay. We should find the dragon soon so we can go back.” He heard Hinata let out a squawk at Kenma’s comment, “But Kenma! Isn’t this fun?!” Kenma couldn’t help the small smile that escaped him as he nodded.
The group spent the day still trekking towards the edge of the territory, all the while hunting more and more monsters. Kageyama finally got his promised blood wolf, which he killed quickly with one of his shadow golems. By the time it was getting close to the sun setting, Kenma could pick out a slightly different feeling in the air. He looked over at Kuroo as the berserker started sniffing wildly. Kuroo usually put his mana strengthening into his senses, so he was always the one who smelled something off first between the two of them. Kenma could admit that he was simply hard-wired to noticing minute differences in the environment they were in.
Hinata and Kageyama hadn’t seemed to notice it just yet, Kageyama having put his golems back into his shadow until more monsters appeared, and Yuki was resting from the scouting that it had just done about an hour before. Kenma surmised that if Yuki hadn’t noticed anything strange from the vantage point above, then that had to mean that whatever was making the forest different was moving in their direction fast.
No sooner than that thought had crossed Kenma’s mind, there was a large rustling from the trees about half a mile in front of them. Kenma started to silently chant one of his water spells, while he could see Kuroo already getting into his first fighting stance. Kageyama flicked his wrist, which pulled his shadow golems out of his shadow to anticipate the attack, while Yuki let out a cry and took off to give cover from above. Hinata looked like he was debating something, but Kenma didn’t get time to surmise why.
A cluster of monsters burst from the trees in front of them, but before they got to where their group was, a huge blast of mana shot out from where they had been running from. ‘So they were running from something..’ No sooner than Kenma thought that there came a rumbling as it felt as if an earthquake was happening. Kenma heard Yuki let out a shrill cry, and Hinata flinched as he finally seemed to decide something, at least that was what Kenma could tell from the look of determination he had.
Hinata shoved his hand into his satchel and pulled out a yellow amulet, while Kageyama looked surprised. Kenma couldn’t pretend to know what that was, but before he could even begin to guess, Hinata was taking the amulet and pouring his mana into it.
“Arashi! Come to me!” A sudden wave of smoke erupted from the amulet, and Hinata threw it into the air just as the amulet let out a bright light. Kenma shielded his eyes, his concentration for his chanting broken, and when he opened them, a giant gray and white bird was in place of the amulet. He had never seen a beast tamer work, so he had no idea if this was normal or not. Hinata and the bird seemed to be looking at one another intently, before Hinata cried out, “He agreed, let’s go! Everybody on the thunderbird!”
Kageyama didn’t waste anytime in running up to the giant bird, a quick nod and a quiet thanks the only exchange between the two, and Kuroo looked conflicted. Kenma could tell that he wanted to see what had made that huge burst and mana, as well as made that giant cluster of monsters run away. Kenma knew they didn’t have time for that though, he quickly pulled Kuroo over and onto the intimidating-looking bird, while Hinata followed them up onto the bird’s back. The giant bird let out a loud cry as it started to beat its wings for take-off, just as the trees the monsters came from started to fall and reveal a dragon. Kenma could only guess that it was the earth dragon they were supposed to find, not kill; just scout.
Kenma had to observe the dragon over the side of the giant bird, since they had officially taken off. The dragon was a greenish brown color and had a spiked spine and tail. Smoke rolled out of the dragon’s nostrils as it glared up at them from the ground. It had no wings, so Kenma breathed a little easier knowing that they wouldn’t be facing a sky battle of sorts while on their savior.
Yuki had settled on Kenma’s shoulder, while Kageyama and Hinata were bickering over something to do with logistics and how far away they were from the town. Kuroo was looking over the edge of their savior, while Hinata turned to him and Kuroo, “So, this is Arashi, he only comes out when we’re in peril.”
Arashi, or the thunderbird that Hinata called him, was one of his first familiars, way back when he first chose his job as a beast tamer. He and Hinata were able to communicate with one of Hinata’s beast tamer skills through telepathy. Hinata had begged Arashi to take the four of them up and back to town, but not before they could get a glimpse of the earth dragon that they were supposed to find.
Kenma learns that Hinata actually has six familiars in total, and they are all a bird of some kind. Kageyama jabs that every familiar is named for their element, Yuki meaning snow for the ice powers, and Arashi meaning storm for the lightning powers. Kuroo laughed out loud to the outrage on Hinata’s face at Kageyama revealing all of his secrets, while Yuki trilled on Kenma’s shoulder as if agreeing, with whom Kenma did not know.
“Ne, Kenma~. How were we supposed to record that we saw the earth dragon?” Kuroo’s question made Kenma think back to what Yachi had said to do. He thinks he remember her saying that they would just report where the dragon was, but if they could get some sort of proof that they had seen it, then that would be better. He told this to Kuroo, but he wasn’t about to go back down to get any sort of proof that they had witnessed the huge bulky body of the beast that was still glaring daggers at the group.
Kageyama muttered a chant under his breath, and one of his shadow golems transformed into an aerial-looking thing. It wasn’t quite a bird, but it also wasn’t a machine. It sailed to the ground where the dragon had felled the trees and came back up with a shiny green scale. Kenma didn’t know how the color changed from the green-brown to a more emerald green, but he wasn’t about to look a gift in the mouth. Kuroo pocketed the scale and looked to Hinata.
“Will Arashi be able to bring us back to town? Or at least far enough away that the dragon won’t be able to follow our path.” Hinata reached out a hand to lay on the feathers on the top of Arashi’s head, an concentrated look on his face. Kenma realized that this was the telepathy that they had spoken about before, since Hinata nodded after a bit, “He said he can take us the whole way. He wants to fly at an angle before going back so that if the dragon follows us, we don’t lead it back to town.”
Kenma nodded as the four of them got a bit more settled on Arashi’s back, Yuki still trilling softly on Kenma’s shoulder while nipping at his ear in an affectionate manner. It only took about half the night for Arashi to decide to fly straight back to town, he had flown a lot higher than the visible line of sight so that the dragon wouldn’t be able to follow their movements, if the dragon could see in the dark anyways. Hinata said that they should reach the town by mid-morning, saying Arashi was a fast flier, and he didn’t need to rest for a long while.
The four adventurers spent the time talking, Kuroo and Hinata doing most of the speaking, while Kenma and Kageyama often rolled their eyes at the antics of their significant others. Kenma had generated a little ball of light so that they wouldn’t be in total darkness once they had flown higher, so that nothing could track the light from below, and that was still their way of sight until the sun started to peek over the horizon. Kenma didn’t think he could have fallen asleep if he tried, but with all the excitement from earlier he didn’t think any of the four would be sleeping before getting back to town.
“Kenma, what are you and Kuroo-san going to do once we get back and cash in on this quest?” Hinata’s question made Kenma pause and think. What were they going to do now? Kuroo would finally get that hooded mantle, but other than monetary things, he didn’t know what they were going to do. Probably just go back to doing quests like normal, which was what he told to Hinata.
“Ehh? But Kenma, how is Yuki going to get his shoulder time with you if we go our separate ways?” By this time Kenma could see the town in the distance, Arashi did indeed make very good time. Hinata’s question made Kenma look over at the bird in question. Yuki trilled softly while nuzzling his cheek, making Kenma smile. What would the alternative be though? Would the four of them form a party together? Kenma wouldn’t technically mind, he liked the varied skill-set that they had. Being able to have Yuki around regularly also didn’t sound too bad, Kenma had really grown to like Yuki a lot.
Kenma looked over at Kuroo in question, he didn’t even think about what his partner would want. Usually Kuroo was a pretty laid-back guy though, so he honestly didn’t think he would mind forming a party of four with the other two adventurers. Like Kenma thought would happen, Kuroo shrugged and said, “I wouldn’t mind teaming up. They’re pretty interesting, ne Kenma?”
Kenma nodded, he couldn’t remember the last time he had had so much fun on a quest outside the town. Arashi had started to lower them to the ground, now at the edge of the gate of the town. Apparently, this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, because the guards didn’t bat an eye at the sight of the thunderbird. Once they all were back on solid ground, Hinata turned to Arashi, “Thanks for the help! You’ll probably be seeing these two a lot more now, if we do team up.” Arashi trilled softly while nuzzling Hinata’s neck, before poofing back into the yellow amulet Hinata had had before. Kenma really wanted to ask Hinata how the familiar summoning worked, but he would probably get the chance at another time.
The four adventurers made their way to the Adventure Guild, and Kenma couldn’t help but draw likeness to when he and Kuroo had originally made the same journey before accepting this quest and meeting their dynamic duo partners.
Yachi squeaked at their telling of them having to escape the earth dragon, and about fainted when Kuroo pulled out the scale from the beast as proof of their tale. She quickly took the scale and marked the quest as completed, all the while praising their scouting abilities even though they hadn’t done much scouting during the quest. None of the group corrected her when she pulled out the reward that would handsomely reward the four of them enough for Kuroo to buy that mantle but a lot of change to spare, and not even touch Kenma’s share. Yachi congratulated them on a job well done before the four left the guild with their earnings.
Kenma was thinking of taking a long hot bath and getting some real rest, when Hinata suddenly turned to him and Kuroo, Kageyama a silent shadow behind him, “Kenma, Kuroo-san! What do you say, wanna team up and be a party of four? I think that would bump our party rank up to B, since we’re all C-rank. We could take A-rank quests together!”
Kenma did have to admit that it was a cool perk for parties, he didn’t technically know how the ranking systems worked, but if it got them higher paying quests, he was all for it. He turned to Kuroo, who was already grinning a bit manically. Kenma never liked that look on his boyfriend as he sighed. Yuki trilled on his shoulder, and he couldn’t find it in himself to be upset over the chaotic outlook their adventuring was about to embark on. Kuroo pulled Kenma against his side and leaned over to press a kiss to the top of Kenma’s head, the most public display of affection that Kenma tolerated out in town.
Kenma agreed, and with that, their party was settled out in word, they only had to get it officially done at the Adventure Guild the next time they all went. No matter what happened, their time would certainly not be dull. Kenma was almost looking forward to going on quests now.