Archive of Our Own

The Knights of Hanoi were not officially knights as the Royal Court would like to remind people. In fact, the Knights of Hanoi all had bounty on their heads, either dead or alive.

Not that many people had actual chance collecting those bounties. They were good at staying under the radar, after all.

Most of the knights on the land did their best to help people. Their job was just to keep track the piece, or go to war, if their Queen commanded. Even though Knighthood in general was a more outdated concept, obviously. The Guards had more things to do with keeping the peace lately.

Or maybe it was just under Akira Zaizen’s leadership. It was hard to tell. Point is, the Knights of Hanoi actually had a harder job ahead of them, since Zaizen was leading the guards.

The Queen’s guard dog. Or lapdog.

Ryoken Kogami thought that maybe if Akira Zaizen could train competent enough guards, the world wouldn’t need the Knights of Hanoi. But so far it didn’t happen, and Ryoken was aware that they had to be the ones to deal with this problem. That was the entire point their were order were estabilished.

He was on horseback, on the back of Trisbaena, his coat moving after him, when his gaze found some of the civilians staring at him.

And behind them, was a wanted poster, from which his own face looked down from

Wanted

Dead or Alive

Revolver

A Knight of Hanoi

The bounty was extremely high, and these people were clearly in need of money, and they all stared at him.

Ryoken raised his eyebrows.

“So?”

The civilians shuddered, and most of them looked away, only one of them stepped forward, his eyes fixed on Ryoken.

“Sir Revolver. Is it true that you are hunting… them? ”

Civilians wouldn’t dare to say their names.

There was a reason they wouldn’t. They would say that saying their names would summon them, and lure them close. It was mostly superstition.

Mostly.

They wouldn’t miraculously hear that some people were talking about them, but if they were nearby, they might decide to have fun.

“Yes.”

Ryoken said simply, and the guy pointed towards a mountain that was in the middle of a forest.

“Something took residence there. We do not know if it is one of them, or not, or something else, but... we hear odd noises from the caves. Our men who went in there, did not come back.”

Ryoken looked at the mountain - didn’t seem like it was the way they were working.

But then again, he knew that some of them were likely to have whims and act upon them, so who knows what they might now?

Besides, these people…

The Knights of Hanoi weren’t a real knightly order, but to these people, they might just be.

“I will check it out.”

~*~

It was getting dark by the time he got close to the mountain, and he understood what the young man meant by something. There were odd noises coming from in there, like something sharp was scratching something that should not be scratched.

Definitely not something any of them would set up.

“Oh? Revolver here? That is new. You can’t really think one of us is involved here are you? Or are you being a real Knight no—- owowowowowowowo stop it! I am trying to estabilish some banter here! Mean! Spoilsport!”

Ryoken did not move until he saw the little green sprite flying around - and then grabbed his gun from his holster, and fired, sending the small sprite into a franzied flying pattern, evading the bullets.

“Wind Ignis. You are still here. So you are involved.”

“I just said I am not!” The Wind Ignis huffed, putting his arms to his waist, hovering in the air. “I am checking this out just as you are!”

“And am I supposed to believe that?”

“You believe whatever you want, but…. huh. When did the scratching stop?”

Ryoken stopped, and tilted his head towards the mountain, his gun still pointed to the Wind Ignis.

The scratching did indeed stop, and the forest was quiet.

Way too quiet.

Trisbaena moved quickly, angrily, standing on his hind legs, and Ryoken had to hold on to not be thrown out.

“Easy…”

There was no reasoning with the horse though - Ryoken half jumped, half fell from the saddle, and then the horse ran away in panic in the opposite direction.

“Huh. That surely ain’t good now is it?”

Ryoken didn’t answer, just straightened up, quietly reloading his gun. He had a feeling he was going to need his bullets.

And then the darkness shot from the direction of the mountain faster than he could move, and next he knew, he was dragged towards it in full speed.

Then darkness.

~*~

He remembered.

He was just a child, following his father.

“The beings deep inside the forest are dangerous” His father had said.

“The Fair Folk?”

His father pursed his lips.

“They do not like being called that. They call themselves Cyberse Court. They are very hard to kill, and if people spend too much time in their realm, they morph into these… beings. They claim they are different from the Fair Folk.”

“Are they?”

His father shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter. If the Fair Folk will cause problems, we will deal with them. The Cyberse Court are closer to us, and they are the only ones who have this power of morphing beings to their own image, which is a danger to humankind. So this is why we are running this experiment. We need beings who can fight with them. We are strong, but we may not be enough for long. That is why you need to understand why the experiment is important.”

The experiment.

His father somehow managed to lure in the six Ignis - six rulers of the Cyberse Court in, and…

There were six children. Six human children, constantly in the near vicinity of one of the Ignis. Never meeting, but close enough for their powers to affect the children.

Creating bonds between the children and the Ignis. Pulling on the bonds. Severing them, reattaching them. When the kids cried in pain, the Ignis also shivered. So that was something.

Ryoken one time overheard his father talking with one of the other Knights.

“If we maybe go a bit further, we could actually kill the Ignis.”

“With killing the children, you mean.”

There was silence, and Ryoken’s heart was beating in his throat. His father surely wouldn’t…

“That is a possibility. Sacrificing six children to save thousands might be worth the prize of our souls.”

Ryoken secretly freed the six children that night. He had no idea the Ignis would be freed as well.

One of the children returned, Spectre, with an unsettling smile and an affinity to control plants. His Ignis did not come back, though.

His father never told him off for it.

“We did not go far enough with the experiment. So if you are afraid that killing the Ignis would kill the children, don’t be. We did not get their connection to be that strong.”

And that was all he ever said about it.

And Ryoken had been trying to amend his mistake ever since then.

~*~

And now… now, he was in the darkness. There was darkness all around him, and he felt the heavy ground beneath himself. Okay. He was still alive, he was still breathing. That was something.

Whatever that creature was, did not kill him.

A green flash in the corner of Ryoken’s eyes, and he moved quickly - well, at least he tried. In reality it was more like scrambling, and falling back over.

But so did the Wind Ignis, rolling around on the floor with a faint green glow, giving out pained sounds.

“So it took you too.”

“Wow what made you realise that? You truly are an amazing knight. One of a kind. Amazing skills.”

“I can still shoot you.”

“You didn’t manage before either. So you wouldn’t hit me.”

“You are literally glowing in the dark.”

“And I am the only one here apart from you.”

“...so it is not one of your creations?”

The Wind Ignis shrugged.

“Obviously.”

There was a faint light in the distance that made both of them look that way.

There was also an uncomfortable silence between them, and Ryoken gritted his teeth.

“So. We have no idea what lies ahead of us.”

Ryoken was silent. The Wind Ignis still continued.

“And we don’t even really know what caught us now. Unless you know something I don’t. Which I doubt.”

“I only heard of this being earlier today.”

“Right. Killing one another would be totally idiotic now wouldn’t it? The one other being next to you? That would be stupid. I am not that stupid. Are you that stupid? Oh wait, you might be.”

He didn’t answer, just started to walk towards the light.

Tried to ignore the little green sprite that followed him.

~*~

Ryoken had no way to tell how far they walked, but he did realise that the area around him seemed to lighten up, just the way the land would become lighter and brighter as the sun was coming up. It was like they walked through an extremely dark forest, which slowly started to become less and less dense, as they walked out of it.

It was no forest that Ryoken had ever seen, and he walked through these lands countless times.

He visited almost every forest, except for…

“Are we in the Cyberse Court?”

The Wind Ignis was silent, and Ryoken glared at him.

“So it is connected to you after all.”

“No! I mean…” The Wind Ignis hesitated. “It does remind me of the Court and yet… not. It’s… wrong. Very wrong.”

Wrong…

“Wrong in what way?”

“Like… twisted. Cyberse Court is beautiful and not… this. Even the Dark Ignis’ area isn’t like this. This is like if you took Cyberse Court and sucked all the life out of it.”

Ryoken was silent for a few moments.

“But this has to be the land of your kind in some manner, then.”

“Yes. Oh. Oooooh. You are afraid that you might turn into something like us, don’t you?”

The Wind Ignis laughed, and Ryoken was sure he would have smirked too if he could.

Ryoken on the other hand could, and did smirk.

“Don’t be foolish” Ryoken said, not looking back at the Wind Ignis, just walking forward. “The Knights of Hanoi wouldn’t be able to hunt your kind if we wouldn’t have preemptive measures against that.”

“Well we are still alive so clearly you are not the best at hunting us.”

“Shut up.”

~*~

Being a Knight of the Hanoi meant that they had to traverse into the Cyberse Court. Being close to the Ignis and their creations, and in the draw of their power - which meant that they would have been in danger of being turned into… half-beings.

Changelings of a sort.

Obviously that was a fate better to be avoided.

It was one of the Knights, Faust, who made a spell - a specific spell, burnt into an iron talisman that the Knights could wear that could stop them from the draw of the Cyberse world.

Ryoken went one step beyond that, actually.

~*~

“Ooooh, I got it. You have your talisman, don’t you?”

Ryoken didn’t even dignify the Wind Ignis with an answer, although the small sprite was flying around him constantly like an annoying fly.

“But I don’t see anything in your neck! Huh. Is it on a ring? Nah, you are not wearing rings.”

“You think I would wear it in a place you could see it?”

“Ooooh. Naughty.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m just saying, not like it matters to me. Y’all are wearing iron stuff. You know how I am with i—- EEK”

There was a flash, and the Wind Ignis flew backwards, smashing into a tree, and Ryoken instinctively raised his gun - but there was no one around.

The dark forest was as eerie and quiet as it was before.

But there was something hard under his boots.

He looked down, and there was a long stretch of iron spread out beneath him.

Like the foundation of a single line iron wall.

Ryoken couldn’t help, but smirk.

“Oh? Someone doesn’t want your kind in here.”

“Yeah, yeah, genius” The Wind Ignis flew up again, rubbing his face in an annoyed manner. “It’s odd, though. There is this twisted Cyberse Court, that is full with magic that is like the Cyberse Court’s… but it keeps Cyberse Court members out?”

Ryoken stepped back, leaning down to check the iron borders - it was more like multiple rods of iron were put down, one right after the other. They weren’t even bolted together.

“Anyway, I guess you can leave me here, if you want” The Wind Ignis shrugged. “But honestly, would you want to stay in this land alone?”

“What makes you think I would want your help?”

“You hadn’t been shooting at me for a while, have you?”

Ryoken didn’t answer, just raised his eyebrows.

“Your kind clearly isn’t welcome here, Wind Ignis. Even if I let you in, all they have to do is to take one look at you, and they know what you are. And then I won’t need to be the one to shoot you.”

The Wind Ignis huffed, and there was a green light - and in the next moment he was in a young man’s form. A young man, with semi-elegant travelling clothes, including a green long coat, and an eyepatch.

And long, green hair in a ponytail.

And then he grinned, opening a single purple eye.

“You shouldn’t call me Wind Ignis either. That is a dead giveaway.”

“Fancy giving me your real name then?”

“Hell no. You can call me Windy, though.”

“I don’t care.”

Then Ryoken reached down and put one of the iron rods away, allowing the Wind Ignis to walk across, even though he obviously shuddered.

Even more so when Ryoken put the iron rod back.

“Ow. That is… they really don’t want me in here.”

“Too bad. You wanted to come.”

Ryoken started walking without looking back, and the Wind Ignis followed.

~*~

This wasn’t the first time Ryoken met the Wind Ignis.

They had a fight once before, and Ryoken managed to put an iron knife through one of his eyes, and the Wind Ignis screamed, before the Light Ignis saved him.

That was the annoying part. The Ignis seemed to cling into each other tooth and nail, through good and bad, and always ready to pull each other out of trouble. Every time the Hanoi felt like they got close enough to the Ignis to destroy them, another one would show up.

Or maybe…

Truth to be told, Ryoken preferred not to think of the other children, who got bonded to the Ignis. He didn’t want to think about what the Knights created with the experiment, and what did Ryoken himself unleash on the world.

He knew what Spectre could do. He saw it multiple times, the way he carried himself, the abilities he created.

Spectre was the only Knight of Hanoi who did not wear an amulet anywhere. After all, iron burnt him too.

He had no idea where did the others ran off to. They all scattered, maybe went home - but it was ten years ago. They probably weren’t living at home by this point.

How did they adapt to their powers? Were they even… still alive?

~*~

“Do you know your partner?”

Ryoken asked the Wind Ignis, who kicked a stone away, scowling.

“Partner?”

“Do not pretend to be a fool.”

“I don’t have a partner, Mr Shooty-Knight. The only partners I have are the other Ignis. That is it.”

Ryoken was about to keep pressing the issue, when he saw something and stopped, frowning.

“A town? In here?”

“Huh, that’s odd” The Wind Ignis tilted his head. “But we gotta check it out once we are here, shouldn’t we?”

Ryoken wanted to argue, but he couldn’t.

Unless they pressed forward, they were never going to find their way out of their current situation. So they went on.

The houses were obviously quickly, and recently put together. Not many animals either, and people eyeing them cautiously, before a swordsman stepped in front of them.

“Two this time…” He lamented, looking over them. “You… you look familiar to me.”

“You are from the nearby town, aren’t you?” Ryoken asked. “One of the townsmen told me their men did not return from the mountain.”

The swordsman nodded.

“That does not explain who you are.”

“You might have heard of me by the name Revolver.”

The swordsman recoiled, and so did multiple people around them… before he sighed.

“Makes sense. I guess a Knight of Hanoi have more of a chance of killing this thing than we do. And who is that?”

“Name’s Windy” The Wind Ignis said cheerfully, and the swordsman narrowed his eyes.

“That is an odd name.”

“Obviously not my real one. Duh” The Wind Ignis shrugged, before grinning. “But we are within the realm of a being whose power is very similar to the powers of the Cyberse Court. Which means using real names would be an extremely stupid move. Names mean power, you know. Do you want to give this being more power over you than it already has? Huh? Then by all means, say your real name. But there is a reason why our buddy Revolver doesn’t use his real name either.”

The swordsman frowned, still eyeing Windy suspiciously, before shaking his head.

“Whoever you are… if you were one of them you would not be able to come into the iron circle. Not to mention a Knight of Hanoi would not tolerate your presence.”

“Are you all still human?” Ryoken interrupted them, and the swordsman sighed.

“Probably barely. All the iron we managed to put down keeps us safe. For now at least.”

“It won’t last forever.”

“I know. Maybe you are the answer to our prayers. We cannot fight this thing, but maybe you can, Sir Revolver.”

~*~

They got one of the empty houses for themselves. The people trapped inside helped them bing some bedsheets to sleep on - they obviously made them by hand, with whatever material they could find.

They lived on the food they had on themselves originally - but by this point they had to resort to eat the food and drink the water from this realm.

Revolver was extremely concerned for them, needless to say.

He looked out the window while the Wind Ignis threw himself down on one of the beds, humming.

“I can hear your thoughts, you know. You are annoying.”

“Really? What am I thinking about then?”

“It’s just a figure of speech, idiot” The Wind Ignis huffed. “It means that you look so damn deep in your thoughts.”

“I thought your kind can’t lie.”

The Wind Ignis laughed, kicking himself to his feet, even though he wobbled a little. Obviously being inside an iron ring had an effect on him.

“That’s just because you think we are like the Good Neighbours. The Fair Folk. The Seelie and the Unseelie. We aren’t. Similar, but different enough.” There was a grin on the Wind Ignis’ face, Ryoken knew it even without looking at him. “We can bend it a little more.”

“Can you lie?”

The Wind Ignis shrugged.

“Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. What do you think? What information did the mighty Knights of Hanoi collected about us when keeping us in captivity? Huh?”

Ryoken didn’t answer, and the Wind Ignis snickered a bit.

Then Ryoken asked the question that was pressing in his mind.

“These people had been eating and drinking from this realm.”

The Wind Ignis stopped snickering, so Ryoken turned around and looked at him - and he was a bit taken aback. In the usually cheerful, obnoxious face of the Wind Ignis, now there was a grim expression.

“Yeah. I don’t know what this place is, but it is similar to the Cyberse Court’s magic. The iron circle is slowing down the transformation, but eating and drinking from the Cyberse realm still has similar rules as the Fair Folk do.”

“What meaning does it have to them?”

The Wind Ignis frowned, shaking his head angrily, which caused his ponytail to fly around.

“I don’t know! How could I know? I don’t know what this place is or what the thing was that took us here.”

“You know your magic the most. What do you think about what it means to them?”

There was silence which was always unsettling - even more unsettling was the solemn tone the Wind Ignis spoke.

“I think they are trapped here. The best bet we have is to find whoever controls this realm and kill that thing. If we do, we might have a chance at freeing them.”

~*~

They started moving the next day, and the villagers crowded around them worriedly.

“Where are you going, Sir Revolver?”

“To find the beast that put us here.”

“Bu—”

“Think about it this way” The Wind Ignis turned around on his heels, causing him to wobble again, and Ryoken grabbed his elbow to keep him upright. “You guys are totally safe thanks to the nice iron ring. Which means, the beast can’t come in here. Which means, we can’t kill him if we stay here. So we get out of this ring and find it! Easy!”

The swordsman looked at him, and slowly nodded, looking back at Ryoken.

“I see… your squire does have a point.”

The Wind Ignis’ jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

“His… what now?”

“Anyway, we are leaving” Ryoken said quickly and grabbed the Wind Ignis’ wrist to pull him after himself. “Take care of yourselves. Try not to eat more than you absolutely need to.”

And with that, he hurried off, still dragging the baffled Wind Ignis after himself.

~*~

“They called me your squire! Your squire!”

“It is a reasonable assumption.”

“That implies I am beneath you!”

“Aren’t you?”

“Hell no!” The Wind Ignis huffed. “You are an annoying human being with a very finite lifespan and no manners whatsoever and an affinity to shoot guns at unsuspecting little beings like myself. I am on the other hand is endlessly charming, basically immortal, and have magical powers. I win.”

“I still won over you last time.”

“Last time was last time. Even a bitch like you can get lucky sometimes.”

Ryoken was smirking, and shaking his head, obviously amused by the way the Wind Ignis was indignant about… well, everything.

“I am not your squire! Why would I be your squire? I never said anything like that! Squires are supposed to be all carrying your weapons and whatever, don’t they? It’s stupid!”

“Well, we didn’t say why did we arrive and leave together. They know I am a Knight of Hanoi. Knights are often accompanied by squires. Reasonable assumption.”

“You aren’t even a real knight. You don’t even have a squire. Let alone me.”

“Would you stop fuming about it?”

“No! And why are you smirking? I thought you would be offended by people thinking I work with you, with you hating me and everything I stand for.”

“Maybe. But it’s still funny seeing you fuming over this.”

They slowly reached the border of the iron ring, and Ryoken stepped over it without an issue, and the Wind Ignis stood on the other side, frowning, and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Ryoken smirked a little, tilting his head.

“I could leave you here, you know. Some of the villagers would probably be happy to see you here. Not being able to leave. I saw a lot of iron weapons.”

“Yes, haha, very funny. There are just a few tiny problems with this” The Wind Ignis raised his fingers, counting. “One, without me, you are alone, and as we established, it isn’t the best idea to be alone in the unknown. Two, if the villagers find me, they will figure out you let me in the first place. And then they won’t be happy. Three, screw you.”

Ryoken couldn’t help but to laugh out a little, before reaching down and moving one of the iron bars, letting the Wind Ignis walk outside of there, still huffing, while Ryoken put the rod back in its place.

“I bet it was extremely funny.”

Ryoken straightened up, and started walking away again, the Wind Ignis following.

“Your face was. You did believe for a moment I would leave you there.”

“I did not! You might be an idiot, but you are not suicidal. And you know I am your best bet at survival here.”

“More like I am your best bet for survival. Without me, you would have had to walk around the iron circle.”

The Wind Ignis opened his mouth, no doubt in order to continue arguing, when the ground shook under them, and both of them lost their balance.

The monster? Or the realm was having an odd effect?

There was no answer to that - only the ground disappearing from under Ryoken’s legs, and he had no way of jumping away. He saw the green glow of the Wind Ignis, and he saw that some trees were also falling down - and around him was just the ever growing darkness, and he was falling and…

And then something wrapped around his wrist.

It was something green and faintly glowing - like a tendril, or a tentacle, or something along those lines, and it held him firmly. Then another appeared, wrapping around Ryoken’s waist, before pulling him upwards, and that’s when he saw it.

A green creature, with many appendages like this, (besides the two wrapped around Ryoken, and the rest were holding onto the branches of a tree that did not disappear into the hole), a single, glowing purple eye, and a big mouth with pointy teeth in it.

“...Windy…?”

The Ignis lifted Ryoken out completely, putting him up to the tree as well, and only let him go, when Ryoken grabbed hold of the branches himself as well, firmly.

And then there was a faint glow, and there was the Wind Ignis in his human form again, sitting there casually.

“Hey look, you actually called me by my name. Who knew that all you needed was a near-death experience.”

“It is hardly your real name.”

Windy shrugged.

“I use it as much that it is close enough to being my real name either way. So same thing, as far as I am concerned, Revolver. And I still don’t know your real name.”

Ryoken frowned.

“I am not completely insane. I may owe you one now, but don’t take me for a fool.”

“Of course you aren’t” Windy snorted. “If you would tell me your real name right now, I would push you back into that hole myself. For being a complete moron.”

Ryoken couldn’t help but smile at that a little, before reaching out and tugging on his ponytail a little, which then made Windy frown.

“...I won’t thank you.”

Windy looked at him, and smirked back at him.

“And then I won’t say you are welcome either.”

~*~

Windy turned into his sprite form to scout ahead, and figure out a way where they could safely get down from the trees - but until that point, Ryoken had to move on the tree branches, which was more difficult than the stories would make one believe.

So occasionally Windy would turn into his monster form, just so he could wrap his tendrils around Ryoken, and put him from one tree to another.

Windy, despite looking small and frail in both his sprite and human forms, was surprisingly strong.

Ryoken probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Windy wasn’t human, after all.

It was hard to forget he wasn’t human - even when he had a human disguise, there was always something eerie and otherwordly about it. Not just Windy, but the other Ignis too, that he had seen on his travels, and part of Ryoken wondered how come more people did not realise they weren’t humans.

But then again Ryoken figured that he was too close to the Ignis from his childhood - he and the other Knights knew them better than most humans did, so maybe it was easier for them to spot the Ignis.

Or maybe most of humanity just saw what they wanted to see.

“Yeah, I think we are safe here now. I am not the best when it comes to the earth, that is not exactly my element, to the contrary, actually, but this seems fine to me.”

Ryoken jumped off the tree, and indeed, the ground under him felt stable - and Windy also landed next to him, taking up his human form again, straightening his jacket, and looking very smug and proud of himself.

“See? You need me. You would have died without me. Or even if somehow would have survived, you would have been stuck on a tree like a monkey. Which would have been hilarious, but not very advantageous.”

Windy really had no idea how to shut up, probably, so Ryoken figured it was better to ignore him and start walking - and indeed, Windy followed him.

“The Earth Ignis. It is his element.”

“Yup. I know what you are thinking, though. It wasn’t his magic” Windy frowned. “I had seen him make earthquakes before. I know how his magic feels like. It wasn’t that. Not even similar to it, nope.”

“Are you sure, or are you just saving your friend?”

“If I say this was not Earth’s magic, it wasn’t! “Windy snapped angrily. “Why do you ask me questions, if you won’t believe me? It wasn’t his. I’m not… look. The magic used it was clearly… rooted in the same kind of magic that surrounds the Cyberse Court. I’m not gonna deny that. But not Earth! Also this isn’t the kind of thing Earth would do. No, Sir Revolver, I know my comrades, and Earth would not. Isn’t Earth’s human partner part of your highly mighty order? He has magic too. Cyberse magic, to boot. He seems way more likely to do something like this.”

Ryoken looked at Windy from the corner of his eye.

“He would not.”

“Are you sure, or are you just saving your friend?”

“I know what are the limits of Spectre’s powers, how far can he go” Ryoken said simply, while he kept walking. “He could open the ground up like that, yes. But creating a shadow dimension like this is beyond his capabilities. Also, he would not destroy trees like that. He is also loyal to me.”

“Or you are just fooling yourself with his loyalty.”

Ryoken snorted.

“You clearly don’t know Spectre. Otherwise you would not say that.”

“And you clearly don’t know Earth. Otherwise you would not accuse him of doing this either.”

“So. Who would do it?”

Windy was silent as he walked next to Ryoken, fiddling with the hem of his shirt nervously.

“I’ve been thinking about it, you know. Constantly. And I… I don’t know. I genuinely don’t. Any of us Ignis would have the power to create a monster like this but I don’t know which one of us would. ”

“Oh?”

“I know you think that we all want to just mess shit up, and all of it. I know that’s what you all think. But it’s not true, we don’t… we like to mess with humans, sure, but this is just… this is beyond what either of us would do. I don’t know. And some of our creations probably… maybe… but even there I have no actual idea why would any of our creations do anything like this.”

“If you don’t want to hurt humans, why aren’t you telling me what’s the deal with your partner?”

Windy stopped, and Ryoken walked a few more steps, before stopping and turning back around - and Windy was looking at him with a baffled expression.

“...you are still stuck on that?”

“You didn’t answer. I dealt enough with your kind to know that is not a good sign.”

“Oh riiiight. Dealing enough with my kind for you means shooting us. Or stabbing me in the eye. I did not forget that, you know!” Windy huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “My partner… the human you Knights had bonded me to, he is fine. Living his best life. If a bit dangerous one. You might have heard of him. He usually uses the name Whistleblower.”

“What.”

~*~

Whistleblower was someone everyone heard whispers of, but not many people had the means to contact him. People said he could find out anything anyone wanted, and he used special crows to carry his messages, and take payment for them.

An information merchant.

Crows with a few green feathers between their dark feathers. Those crows had no way to be found, but if one really needed them, they could find them, and send a message to Whistleblower through them.

The crows were wherever they needed to be, just like… magic.

~*~

“Hah! I see that took your off-guard. That is funny. Did you really think someone like Whistleblower doesn’t have magic? Of course he has! And Whistleblower isn’t just a fancy codename either. There is a reason he is protecting his real name just like you and I do. Or why your buddy Spectre does. Whistleblower and Spectre are veeeeery similar, you know.”

“The crows. Are they from you?”

Windy shrugged.

“I visited him some years ago. He did not wish to be involved with me, but I did teach him how to use his magic more, so he could create simple beings. So really, they are his creations. I just taught him how to do it. The one thing he allowed me to be involved with.”

There was some bitterness in the last sentence, and Revolver raised his eyebrows.

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“I would have liked to hang out with him, not gonna lie. I see others who are in good terms with their partners. Seems nice, but if Whistleblower does not want me there, I won’t hang around him. He knows how to reach me if he ever changes his mind.”

“How considerate of you.”

“Whistleblower and I went through a lot of the same shit, thanks to your father and his original Knights” Windy’s words were sharp as he started walking again. “That kind of creates a bond whether we like it or not. You should not forget that in relation to your buddy Spectre either.”

~*~

“You said that there are Ignis who are on good terms with their partners.”

“Duh” Windy shrugged, kicking away a rock while walking. “Some of them are even playing important parts in this giant game of sorts.”

“Game?”

Windy snorted.

“Of course there is a game. The Queen and her guard dog, Zaizen. You, the Knights of Hanoi. Us, the Cyberse Court. Humanity. And all the Changelings you, the Knights created, with bonding them to us. Whistleblower, Spectre - and the other four. You think they won’t all play a part?”

“What do you mean by a part?”

“Come on, you can’t think things aren’t in motion. You surely have noticed, Revolver, you are a smart cookie. A smart cookie who makes dumb decisions, but a smart cookie nevertheless.”

“Stop calling me a cookie.”

“Anyway” Windy continued without paying attention to Ryoken. “You guys are hunting us, and the Queen also has her eye on us. And the tensions keep brewing everywhere - one day something will erupt.”

“Like someone creating a monster, who takes people to an alternate dimension?”

Windy was silent, looking down to the floor.

“...maybe.”

“So you admit it being a possibility.”

“It is a possibility. And I hate it. Hate, hate, hate, all the hate. I can’t think of anyone who could do it from the Cyberse Court - but I also know nobody outside of the Cyberse Court who could do it.”

Ryoken stopped, and so did Windy - and his purple eye was wide, and Ryoken had never seen the Wind Ignis look like this. Windy’s eye was full of confusion and pain, and concern - he looked completely lost, not knowing what to do.

He looked… honest.

“...Windy. What do you want?”

Windy laughed out loud, throwing his head back.

“Now you ask that? Now? After a decade of waging war on us? After stabbing my eye out? Well, I guess better late than never, huh? We just want to be left the fuck alone. Did we ever like… hurt anyone? As in, permanently? No maiming had been done. Just messing with humans is like… humans do worse to each other than we do to humans. But for some reason your daddy dearest decided we are a threat. Someone… one of us is escalating here. But you attacked us first. Don’t forget that, Revolver.”

Ryoken opened his mouth, and then the cold air hit him, and he looked at the direction it came from.

Darkness.

He glanced back at Windy.

“Was that you?”

“Yes, I thought I would add some extra drama into my speech. What do you think?!”

“I think you would do that.”

Windy nodded a bit, reluctantly.

“True, I would. But didn’t. Wasn’t me.”

Ryoken took out his gun, checked it - all loaded.

Time to do something about it, then.

So he just started walking to the direction where the wind came from, and Windy followed him.

Somehow, deep inside, without voicing it, and barely even acknowledging it, maybe, just maybe he was glad that he did not have to do this alone.

~*~

The monster was dark, big, and had a lot of teeth - but it visibly recoiled when Ryoken hit him with the iron bullets. Also big body, bigger target.

Windy was also moving quickly, turning between different forms in flashes of green, and the wind was so strong that it kept the monster contained. Whenever Ryoken had to stop to reload his gun, Windy was near, his magic keeping the monster away from Ryoken, not letting it getting close to him. Windy was faster than Ryoken was, and had magic - but Ryoken’s bullets obviously damaged the monster more.

But the problem with bullets was, that eventually, they ran out.

And the monster was still moving, even if a lot slower.

Windy appeared in front of him in a flash of green, keeping both of them safe with a smaller whirlwind around them, that stopped the claws of the monster - and just glanced back at Ryoken. Okay, more like glaring.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have wasted those bullets on me when we ran into each other.”

“Not everything is lost” Ryoken said, pulling out a dagger from under his coat. “This has enough iron to finish the job. I just need to get close to it.”

Windy frowned, and then gave out a low, growling sound.

“Okay, fine, fine. I got your point. Geez. You get one shot at this, though. You are pretty damn dead, if you fuck it up.”

“So are you. So for both of our sakes, hope that I don’t mess up. And for everyone’s in this realm.”

Then Windy was gone in a flash of green, and next Ryoken knew, he was flying through the air - and his dagger got buried into the monster’s single eye.

The monster gave out one last, feral screetch, and shook violently - which caused Ryoken’s grip to slip on the dagger, and started to fall backwards - only for the familiar green tendrils to appear, wrap around his body, and yank him away from the dying monster.

This time the landing wasn’t as elegant - Windy was obviously scattering to get away as well, so both of them fell, as reality started to break apart around them, but Ryoken felt like the green tendrils just pulled him closer, as if the Ignis wasn’t just shielding him with his magic, but…

He stopped that line of thought.

He only opened his eyes when he felt the tendrils gone, and the world stopped shaking too - and it was like the world regained colour. He heard birds too, for the first time since he walked into this forest, and no scratching sounds anymore.

It was still clearly the same forest he walked into - but now, they were on the other side of the mountain.

Ryoken slowly stood up, looking around. And then Windy started laughing like a maniac, lying on the ground, back in his human form.

“We are out! I can’t believe it. Hah, I thought you would surely try to murder me, and I would have to kill you back, but nope! We actually both survived can you believe it?”

Ryoken couldn’t help but smile a little either, but then the smile disappeared, as he looked at the mountain.

“You should go.”

“...huh?”

“I will check on the villagers. They shouldn’t find out about you being what you are. Not to mention if the rest of the Hanoi shows up, you should be gone by then.”

“...and you also don’t want them to know you let me go, huh?”

Ryoken looked down at him - and Windy was pursing his lips angrily.

“It is better for both of us, if they don’t know about it. At least for the time being. I’m sure we can… talk about the things you mentioned. Later.”

Windy rolled his eye, before transforming into his small sprite form.

“Sure, sure. Whatever. Later, I guess.”

And then he was gone in a flash of green and with a swift breeze.

Ryoken told himself that the heaviness in his chest was just because he was tired after what they went through.

~*~

The villagers were mostly fine, and extremely grateful. They were worried for his squire , but Ryoken assured them that it was a temporary alliance with someone who already left. And he prayed word won’t spread about his odd squire. 

The ones who were not taken by the monster did manage to stop Trisbaena from running far, so that was something. Ryoken couldn't help but smile a little, being reunited with his horse, and Trisbaena seemed delighted to see him again as well.

The taken villagers mostly seemed like they stayed human too. There were some who had some odd aura around them, and Ryoken reassured them, that they can still live a mostly normal life like this.

Especially since the monster was gone.

But if the creator of the monster would come back…

He pushed those thoughts away. The village was fine for now, and the only thing they could do, was to build up their defenses.

He needed to go back to the rest of the Knights, he knew it. He also knew they would ask questions. Especially if word would spread about this being, then they would ask all the details, of what it was, what he experienced.

And truth to be told, Ryoken had no idea what to say.

He spent the night in a small inn - the kind that didn’t care who anyone was, and gave even wanted knights a place to stay for the night, granted that they had money to pay for it.

He was barely even surprised that there was a knock on his door late night. The question was just that did the visitor want to talk with him, ask for help or was after the bounty on his head?

He took his dagger into his hand as he opened the door, and was greeted by a single purple eye.

“You are an idiot.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Are you gonna let me in or are we risking anyone seeing us?”

Ryoken stepped aside, letting Windy inside, before closing the door.

By the time he turned back around, Windy was already on his bed, and Ryoken raised his eyebrows.

“That is my bed.”

“Shut up. We need to talk. You know we do.”

Ryoken wished he could have said otherwise. He wished he would have been himself from before all of this happened, if he could have just shot at Windy again.

But he was thinking of him as Windy to begin with. So he sighed, walked over, and sat down next to him.

“I’m listening.”

“Don’t tell the Knights what happened.”

“...they will surely find out. And they will ask why did I run out of bullets. These aren’t that easy to restock, you know.”

Windy huffed, leaning forward, their faces now very close to each other.

“Listen. Then don’t tell them it was a being related to the Cyberse Court. Tell them you are not sure. Tell them it could be an Unseelie being. Or something unknown. Make something up, or I don’t care, ‘cause… ‘cause you know what your daddy dearest would do. You know it would escalate things further.”

“What do you propose instead? Just ignore this? Ignore all those people being put into danger?”

“Let me look for the culprit” Windy nodded. “If… if it is one of us, I can figure out who. And why. And talk with them about it. I’m sure we can figure something out! But if the Knights launch a counterattack, there will be… there will be an all-out war soon. And I don’t want that. It would be bad for humans too.”

Ryoken looked at him, at Windy’s pleading expression, and sighed.

“Is this what you ask for in exchange?”

“In exchange?”

“You saved my life. Is this what you ask for it?”

Windy leaned even closer, and Ryoken tried to ignore the way his heart sped up.

“If that is what you need to calm your conscience, you can pretend that” Windy said in a low voice. “But you can just pretend it’s just me, the Wind Ignis. Asking you, a human he had worked together with.”

“And what if the culprit will attack you?”

Windy looked taken aback, and then laughed a little, softly, shaking his head.

“If… if the culprit really is one of us, there is no way. No chance. Nuh-huh. Absolutely not. Even the idea is preposterous.”

“You seem sure. But you were sure about them not wanting to really hurt humans either.”

“Yeah, but… if something pushed them into it… I mean humans are humans. And we are… there is only six of us. Six Ignis. Not more, not less. In the whole wide world. Why would they hurt only one of the other beings like themselves? No way. I’m safe. Certainly safer than you would be, if you were to confront them, Revolver.”

Ryoken just looked at him, and Windy looked… honest.

Then he sighed.

“Fine. I will figure out something. But how will I know if you find out anything?”

“Well, keep an eye out for Whistleblower’s crows.”

“Why? Are you going to involve him? Didn’t you say he didn’t want anything to do with you?”

Windy shrugged.

“I am not dragging him into it. Maybe I can buy some information from him, but that does not violate our agreement. But point is, I taught him how to use his crows, you know, how to create them. I can create identical ones, so if we communicate via those, none of your precious Knights will be able to tell if you are getting messages from Whistleblower, or someone else.”

“I see. That is surprisingly smart from you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Windy was pouting now, and Ryoken couldn’t help but smile a little - and Windy tilted his head.

“There is one thing I am still curious about, though.”

“I don’t even want to know.”

“But I do, so I am asking anyway” Windy leaned close again. “The Knights have talismans to protect them from the effects of the Cyberse Court. You do not wear any, yet you were not affected by that realm. Why?”

Ryoken knew it was stupid to tell him. He knew it was a horrible idea.

Yet, he unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, to pull it away a little - showing the black brand on his skin. He heard Windy inhale sharply, before he leaned forward, touching it gently - and yanking his hand back, like it burnt him.

Which it probably did.

So Ryoken smirked.

“Do you always touch things you probably shouldn’t?”

“That has iron in it! You burnt iron into your skin?”

“A talisman or a ring can be stolen. It is harder to cut out my skin.”

Windy grinned, tilting his head.

“But now I know where is it. Aren’t you afraid I am going to cut off your skin in your sleep, Sir Revolver?”

Ryoken raised his eyebrows, with a smirk.

“You plan on staying here while I am asleep?”

“I dunno. Aren’t I staying here for that long?”

Their faces were very close to each other now, and Revolver’s heart was beating in his throat.

“This is an even more atrocious idea than me keeping this whole situation a secret.”

“Maybe” Windy shrugged, his eyes dropping to Ryoken’s lips, and he wasn’t even subtle about it. “And yet, you didn’t say no to that. And you aren’t saying no to this either. Or are you?”

Ryoken did not.

He did not pull away when Windy leaned even closer, finally kissing him, he did not pull away, when Windy pushed himself even closer to Ryoken - honestly, he even fixed his own shirt back up, so the brand on his skin would not burn Windy.

This was the single worst idea he had probably in his entire life, and he was sure there will be consequences of it.

But at that point, while Windy was wrapped around him, and kissing him, he found that he couldn’t care less about those consequences.