Work Text:
People were whispering about Playmaker.
The word travelled at first slowly, and then as wildfire.
The whispers mentioned a young man - pale and unsettling, stepping out of the shadows, and then disappearing in them when he wanted. His wide green eyes barely blinking, the darkness an innate part of his frame.
Playmaker, who showed up anywhere and disappeared just as quickly.
He was not human.
He was absolutely not human, not the way he used magic, not the way he was part of the shadows.
Not the way he looked at people.
There were many rumours about Playmaker - what he was, where he came from. Some people whispered he was one of the Fair Folk.
Others managed to get a glimpse of the small dark sprite often dancing around him - and they whispered Playmaker might have been a soldier of the Cyberse Court, one of the servants, one of the creations of the Ignis.
Others whispered he came from beneath the Queen’s Castle, someone who ran away from there.
Some people had seen him face off the Knights of Hanoi, the darkness shielding him, and also wielding it as a weapon against them, without mercy.
Some of these rumours were right.
~*~
Playmaker was actually born in a town far away from the Queen’s castle. He lived in a big house alongside other children who did not know their parents, and he lived a normal life, and he had a normal name.
That name was Yusaku.
That is, until the Knights of Hanoi had taken him.
He didn’t remember much about the cell he was held in. He remembered the darkness, he remembered the whispers in his mind, he remembered the pain under his skin.
He remembered another voice whispering from the other side of the wall, telling him to hold out. How he needed to survive.
Then the door opened, and he ran, but the darkness followed him.
Getting back to the orphanage was the easiest and the hardest, and at first people were relieved that Yusaku was back, and Yusaku himself tried to forget it.
But there was no way to truly forget what happened.
And if Yusaku remembered, everyone did.
Because with his darkness, came the darkness - it was almost as his darkness spread out from under his skin, his bed, as he screamed from the terrors in his sleep. The darkness was swirling around him, lashing out, as if following Yusaku’s screams.
The others were whispering.
Something else.
Dangerous.
Changeling.
If you spend too much time close to one of them - one of the beings of the Cyberse Court, if you are affected by their power for too long…
…
Well.
Then you start changing, changing from human to… something else.
Something dangerous.
So Yusaku threw away his life, his name, and he ran, disappearing into the dark night.
Running was not easy, but he quickly figured darkness was his biggest ally.
It was human nature to be afraid of the dark - or rather, what was hiding in the dark.
So he figured he would have to become the thing in the night.
He was already halfway there, after all.
That’s how he ended up becoming Playmaker.
The easiest thing to learn was how to disappear into the darkness - and that was his biggest help at getting himself food, and places to sleep at.
Living in the darkness was easy.
People were afraid of the darkness, but they also thought the darkness would shield them from prying eyes, and listening ears.
Not from Playmaker, it didn’t.
And eventually, he met someone he would end up calling an ally.
The man was also moving from town to town, asking questions, the kind of questions and the kind of leads Yusaku himself followed.
The man walked the country, a hat pulled into his face, and sometimes, he would go back to a house - and even looking at the house caused Yusaku’s head to hurt.
“What are you hiding in an iron-coated home, Unnamed?”
The man jumped upon hearing the whispers that came from the dark.
“Who is there?”
“Someone who has questions. I see you do have questions too. And yet you didn’t answer mine.”
“You have no business going close to that house. If you have problems with someone, come to me.”
“That’s what I’m doing don’t I?”
“Who are you?”
“Playmaker is what I am called. You really go by Unnamed?”
“Playmaker…” The man repeated, his eyes scouting the darkness. “You have magic.”
He didn’t reply.
That much was obvious.
“I heard you are hunting the Knights of Hanoi.”
Still no reply.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Three reasons,” Yusaku answered. “One. I need to find out answers to what happened to me. Two. I need to take revenge. And three. I need to find out the one who saved me. Saved us.”
“...you were one of the kidnapped children, weren’t you?”
“...how do you know about it?”
“My brother…” Unnamed started, with an urgent expression on his face. “My brother, he was one of them too. He also… he also changed. If you are one of them…”
Yusaku let the darkness pull back from him, and Unnamed jumped the moment he materialized in front of him.
“Is it him in the house?” Yusaku asked, eyes fixed on the man’s face. “The iron house. Is your brother hidden there?”
“He is very frail,” Unnamed whispered, shaking his head. “He needs to be safe. I need to figure out why the Knights of Hanoi did this to him… to you all. I need answers. I need revenge. Please, Playmaker - work with me.”
~*~
So they worked together.
He found out his name was Shoichi Kusanagi, but real names… real names hid power, they were a weakness, so he tried not to use it.
Especially as the deeper Yusaku moved into the shadows, the more he felt like he wasn’t the only one there.
The first thing he had seen was an eye.
A glowing, yellow eye that disappeared, and Yusaku would have usually thought it was just a figment of his imagination, but there was a feeling in the back of his mind, a shiver down his spine that told him it was not.
A feeling, a very familiar feeling.
The Hanoi managed to capture the Ignis before.
The Ignis were harmed by iron.
He could do something with this.
~*~
The wristband Kusanagi made for him made him feel dizzy, but he figured, that was the point.
The inside of it was wrapped up, but the wristband itself was laced with iron - not enough to seriously hurt Yusaku, or kill a being from the Cyberse Court.
But enough to keep them trapped.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m making sure you won’t escape.”
“Why?? Look at you! Ungrateful, much, huh? I wanted to help you!”
“You will,” Yusaku smiled, looking at the creature with the glowing yellow eyes, trying to get out of his wristband. “You will be my hostage against the Hanoi.”
He named the creature Ai.
Because the eye was the first thing he had seen of him.
~*~
Of course once he had Ai tied to him, the Hanoi was more and more after him, and with them, came Revolver.
Revolver, with his pale eyes and iron bullets that he usually did not hesitate to fire, his blades also filled with iron (one time, one time Yusaku had seen Revolver drive his blade into the Wind Ignis’ eye, and Windy screamed, and was in so much pain, until a flash of lightning came down from the sky, saving him).
But for some reason, he seemed to have been---
Hitting an Ignis with iron bullets isn’t easy.
Bullets are fast, but magic is faster, and an Ignis’ short form was easy to get out of the way.
But Yusaku couldn’t help but notice…
An Ignis is hard to hit.
Especially in the small sprite-forms that they had.
…but Yusaku wouldn’t have been.
And yet…
And yet.
And yet the bullets just grazed his face, or even if it hit his arm, it only hit his arm, and yes, it was painful, it was like it was going to burn through his entire body from the inside, but…
But it did not kill him.
Of course eventually he put it together why.
~*~
“He was the one who set us free.”
“And he regrets it now.”
“...I think if he would fully regret it, he wouldn’t have missed. ”
His left arm, where Ai was trapped at, felt heavy, and Yusaku’s head was spinning.
“The iron is hurting you too, Playmaker.”
“I am aware, yes.”
“Are you? Are you really?”
Yusaku closed his eyes.
“Three reasons. One. Closeness to you, combined with whatever the Hanoi did to us, gave me my abilities. Two. The iron, while it made me feel lightheaded at first, the longer I am wearing it, the weaker I become, and the more my head hurts. Three. My powers are getting stronger. ”
“...well, yes. It’s closeness to me that gave you powers in the first place - my powers. Sharing is caring. So makes sense that now that you literally tied me to you, your powers would grow. And also your weakness to iron. You are becoming… less human.”
“Indeed.”
“You said three reasons. Three reasons for what?”
Yusaku raised his right hand - his fingers fumbled over the lock of the wristband, his entire body was shivering, but he undid it.
The wristband fell, and Yusaku felt like he dropped some unbearable weight from his arm.
“...what?”
“You are free to go, Ai,” Yusaku said, a bit breathless, before straightening his back. “My quest is not over, but keeping you tied to me would only drag me down at this point. I do not need a hostage anymore.”
“...you are letting me go? Really? After all that? What about all the fun we had together? Cutting me off like that, Playmaker, is not nice!”
Yusaku shook his head, turning away from the Ignis.
“You have free will, Ai. You can go wherever you want to go.”
And with that, he stepped into the darkness, the familiar darkness - and it felt like a breath of fresh air, a welcoming embrace.
Or maybe that was the long, long arms gently wrapping around him in the dark.
“Y’know, Playmaker,” Ai was almost purring at this point. “No need to act all cool to me. If you wanted me to keep going with you, you could have just said so~”
Yusaku didn’t say anything.
Just smiled a little.
~*~
Somewhere along the line they met Jin Kusanagi - he was just like Yusaku, but he was trapped in an iron home, frantic and angry, and Lightning was circling around the house, but never in a way Yusaku and Ai could meet him.
And he knew of Whistleblower.
He visited him once - he lived in a tower deep in the woods that was hard to enter and harder to climb, but not if you moved through shadows.
Everything casts shadows, and so it was not hard to step out of them on top of the tower.
Whistleblower barely blinked, when he saw them.
“Playmaker and… Ai, right? Wondered when you would show up.”
“You know who we are.”
“Well, duh. What a stupid observation,” Whistleblower rolled his eyes. “It’s my job to know things. That’s what I do.”
“So you know what you are, I figure?”
Whistleblower raised an eyebrow, and then grinned - a weird, lopsided grin.
“Do you know what you are, Playmaker? Have you even looked in a mirror, recently? C’mon. Maybe you should check yourself out.”
And with that, Whistleblower ushered him towards a mirror, and---
He was pale, which was the first thing he noticed.
He was much paler than he had ever been, his green eyes looking bigger than usual. There was a weird look to him, and it felt like his skin was almost see-through, his veins showing up on his skin, and they were dark---
He did not look human.
He didn’t look human - but it wasn’t like the way Ai’s human form didn’t look human - he had seen Ai in human form, obviously, all flashy, and dramatic, and handsome, and almost like a magnet. Beautiful the way you would call a force of nature beautiful - and it wasn’t just Ai.
All the Ignis were like that.
Beautiful and dangerous like nature itself.
Yusaku did not look like that.
He looked inhuman, something beyond. Something who was one with the darkness.
“Changeling. That is what you are.”
“What we are.”
“Well, in some shape or form, yes,” Whistleblower admitted with a shrug. “But let’s be real. You are waaaay further down that rabbit hole compared to me.”
“Am I a cautionary tale to you?”
Whistleblower cocked his head to the side, before he burst out laughing. A loud, howling laughter, and his crows almost joined in the cacophony of chaos and noise, as if they shared the amusement of their creator.
“Oh definitely not. If anything, I find you actually appealing. There is some sex appeal in your current aesthetic. Maybe one day I’ll reconsider my stance on Windy. But for now I prefer to be mostly human. We’ll see!”
Whistleblower had magic at his fingertips, and his eyes a soft green glow to them, and the crows acted like his eyes and ears as much as his messengers, even though he didn’t step out of his tower.
But he didn’t look other, not the way Yusaku did.
Not that he minded.
~*~
“Why are you following me?”
“Hm? Ya said I can do what I want, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but why are you still following me? I held you hostage at first. Why are you still here? You are free to go.”
“I’m free to go, and also free to do whatever the hell I want. Wonders of free will. And I happen to find that our goals align.”
“Do they?”
“Sure. The Hanoi are a pain in our neck. The Hanoi are a pain in your neck. See? Alignment.”
Ai was almost convincing about this only being for aligning goals.
Almost.
Too bad he was wrapped around the back of Yusaku, burying his face to the crook of Yusaku’s neck, fingers fidgeting with Yusaku’s clothes.
His small sprite form was quick and playful. His monstrous form was firm and encompassing.
And his human form held Yusaku tight, not letting him go, almost gently purring. The way Ai switched between his different forms was almost mesmerizing, there was a fluidity in his movements.
There was no one natural state to Ai.
In some way, Ai was the darkness, the shadows, melting and changing form as he saw fit.
People are usually afraid of the dark - and once upon a time, so was Yusaku.
But for a long time now…
Yusaku felt the safest when surrounded by darkness.
~*~
Jin Kusanagi - no, Lightbringer, he used the name Lightbringer, - broke free.
Yusaku thought it would happen - he was a bundle of restless energy and suppressed anger wanting to break out - and Yusaku knew it perfectly well that he set him up on the way to freedom when he hired Whistleblower to help him.
And he could immediately guess that he had made a mistake when he saw the flashes of lightning.
Lightbringer was loud and angry, and laughed, and his kiss burnt almost as much as the iron blade that he sunk into Yusaku’s thigh, before he disappeared in the night.
Ai was in monstrous form, pulling Yusaku in the darkness, where they were safe, away from the bright light that came from Lightbringer, before tending to his wounds.
“This went horribly. What will you tell Unnamed?”
“I do not plan to tell him anything. Not yet, anyway.”
“What? You will just have him worry over you as well?”
“Do you seriously think he will have time worrying about me?”
“...yes. I know Lightbringer is his priority, but he does care about you too.”
“And I am the one who helped set Lightbringer free, when he never wanted that.”
“Why did you help him?”
“...you had seen him. He was suffering. In a way, he was still closed in, just like all those years ago.”
Yusaku was lying on the ground, Ai’s long arms wrapped around him.
“But we now don’t know where he is. Or Lightning.”
“He needs to figure out what he wants for himself.”
“Just like you did?”
“Something like that.”
There was a grin on Ai’s face, and Yusaku leaned up and kissed him - it wasn’t their first kiss, far from it.
It was easier to kiss Ai in the darkness.
No chance of surprise attacks.
Just the two of them, and Ai’s arms wrapping stronger around Yusaku, as he kissed him back.
~*~
They had seen Spectre - just like them, just like Lightbringer and Whistleblower and Yusaku himself, just like them, and yet so different, and Yusaku wondered, what even drove him to follow Revolver. (Even after talking with Spectre, Yusaku did not understand, just like Spectre did not understand Yusaku either.)
He had seen Blue Angel, who became Blue Maiden, quickly moving, and changing, because she wasn’t like them, but she chose to become like them. Blue Maiden, who went with the Water Ignis, and with the girl who called herself Siren who was like them, both of them changing into something else.
(He also knew there was a victim he did not know anything about. Didn’t manage to track the Fire Ignis’ partner, yet. Probably one day.)
~*~
Revolver was a problem.
Yusaku had multiple run-ins with the guy - and his guns.
A lot of times his guns.
“The Ignis cannot be trusted,” Revolver hissed, pointing his gun at Ai, who was standing next to Yusaku.
“We literally can’t lie, Revolver.”
“Never stopped you from being untrustworthy before. Look at what is happening with Playmaker.”
“I had made my choice, Revolver. Have you made yours?”
For the longest time, it looked like that Revolver did also make his choice.
But then---
Suddenly everything changed.
He did not expect to meet Revolver at the bottom of Whistleblower’s tower.
“Why are you here?”
Revolver’s eyes were fixed up at the window.
“Don’t you notice something weird?”
“Huh?”
Yusaku looked up and then he saw it.
Or rather… didn’t.
The crows - Whistleblower’s crows, that were constantly on the move, flying in and out of the window, they were nowhere to be seen.
“I couldn’t reach him for a week, so I decided to come here,” Revolver looked at him, pale eyes fixed on Yusaku. “You can go up there, can’t you?”
Of course Revolver would be aware of his abilities.
Of course he was.
Yusaku reached out a hand, and Revolver grabbed onto it, without much hesitation.
It only took them a moment to arrive up there.
And what they saw was---
The room was in complete disarray, feathers and papers everywhere, and in the middle---
In the middle, a glowing, green sphere.
Inside the sphere there was Whistleblower, levitating above ground, body turning to an unnatural angle, droplets of blood surrounding him, as if they also got frozen in time.
“What the--”
“He is protecting himself,” Ai stepped out of the shadows, examining the floating body. “Probably something he worked out how to keep himself alive. He was playing a lot of sides, giving information for everyone, it was only a matter of time until it backfired on him. He needed some safeguard. What goes around comes around, schemey little schemer he is.”
Yusaku reached out, touching the orb, and then it started glowing.
And Whistleblower’s voice filled the room.
“Heya there. Well, I’m in a predicament ain’t I. Good news - I am probably alive. Bad news - I cannot actually be sure I’m alive. If everything is alright I should be. But who knows! Aaaanyway. I hope you are someone reasonable finding me. Not like I can be picky about it at this point. I… I am running out of time. I need to set off the spell soon if I don’t want to bleed out. Little bastard probably thought I was dead. Prolly got tired of waiting for me to partner up with him and just up and killed me. Or tried to. I hope.”
Silence.
Yusaku’s hand fell off the orb, eyes fixed on Whistleblower’s unmoving form.
“Little bastard… partnering.”
Yusaku repeated his words.
“Did he mean… Windy?” Ai’s voice was trembling, and then--
“He would not.”
“Oh of course Revolver would jump on the idea that… wait what?”
Both of them whipped around, looking at Revolver, whose eyes were fixed on Whistleblower’s floating form.
Revolver’s expression was hard to decipher - his lips were pursed, pale eyes unblinking.
“This cannot be him.”
“What makes you so sure?” Yusaku asked, and Revolver shook his head.
“I will not answer that question in the presence of the Dark Ignis,” Revolver’s voice was sharp, and he put a leg up the windowsill. “There is someone within the Cyberse Court responsible for this. Someone from the Cyberse Court keeps committing atrocities. But it cannot be Windy.”
“Wait what do you mea---”
They couldn’t finish, because Revolver disappeared from the window, leaving behind a grappling hook.
And by the time Yusaku stepped over to the window, Revolver already slid down, and disappeared within the forest.
~*~
They took Whistleblower with them into the darkness.
“Not the most ideal solution, but if he is taken to the territory of the Cyberse Court, his abilities would likely grow. He will become less human, of course, but his healing will probably get better. And I bet he would prefer being alive and less human compared to being a dead human.”
Anyway, it was going to take time.
Yusaku collapsed to the ground, and Ai sat down next to him, now in human form.
“...Revolver called Windy by his name.”
“Yeaaah, I didn’t imagine that, did I?” Ai scratched his head. “But he still called me Dark Ignis. And he said someone from the Cyberse Court was responsible, but seems to be certain it wasn’t Windy… even though Whistleblower seems to believe it was.”
Something was brewing.
In the world, something was brewing - Revolver, Windy, Whistleblower’s injury. Lightbringer and Lightning, the two of them probably hiding somewhere together.
There was something approaching, and Yusaku had no idea what.
But there, in the darkness, leaning by Ai’s side, Ai’s fingers in his hair, he could close his eyes peacefully.
All they had to do was to wait, biding their time together.