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“Yami… what is this?”
“That’s the Black Bulls’ pets.”
Julius stared at the three enormous and ferocious beasts that Yami was barely able to keep on a leash and tried not to hear the growling and not to see the bared teeth either. These didn’t look like ‘pets’. These looked like a hazard.
“I… thought you were going to bring…” Julius started. “Yami, the Black Bulls have a cat, no?”
“Nah, if I bring the cat, I have to bring Vanessa too and it’s bring-a-pet day, not bring-an-alcoholic.”
“Yami…”
“Snooze brought an overgrown bird,” Yami said defensively as he pointed at Dorothy, who was awake for once and standing next to an ostrich that was almost twice her height. “Why can’t I bring my little guys?”
“There’s nothing little in three metres tall beasts, Yami,” Julius noted. “And I knew about Karen.”
“Karen?” Yami asked.
“Karen is the Coral Peacock’s pet ostrich,” Dorothy said as if it was self-explanatory.
“Yes, it’s Karen,” Kaiser said.
“Karen,” Fuegoleon repeated while nodding.
Apparently, everybody knew about Karen’s existence aside from Yami.
“That’s not a pet either! That’s a grown ass animal!” Yami protested.
“Everybody knows that the Coral Peacocks have a pet ostrich so we were expecting Karen or any other animal we know they have,” Julius said. “But Yami, these are beasts. They aren’t pets.”
“They’re my pets! And I don’t see you telling anything to the guy who brought an elemental spirit. That’s no pet either, that’s a fucking radiator.”
“Salamander just growls,” Fuegoleon noted. “Your pets are currently baring their teeth at us and looking pretty agressive.”
“Yes, thank you Fuegoleon,” Nozel uncharacteristically said before turning to Yami, “Can you control your beasts before they eat any of our respectable pets, foreigner?”
Yami huffed, staring dead into Nozel’s bird eyes, “Little birdie brought another little birdie and I’m not even surprised.”
“Yami, you could’ve brought one, not all three,” Julius noted.
“They’re a package deal. I’m not separating them. And Goldie brought a plant.”
William raised both eyebrows before saying, “It’s a ficus.”
“It’s leaves.”
“It’s alive.”
“It’s a plant.”
“Can we get this started?” Nozel deadpanned. “I don’t have all day.”
“...yes. So, you’ll be sent on patrols with your… pets. This was Marx’ idea. Magic Knights need to regain the trust of the people since the Elf attack. The objective is to show how approachable and kind you all are.”
Silence befell the room.
“Sure,” Yami said after a while. “Because Jack bringing a whole ass deadly poisonous snake is going to show the people how nice he is.”
“They’ll get the character down, at least,” Charlotte noted as she petted the Blue Roses' white Persian cat sitting on her lap, Joan.
Julius sighed. Now, he thought he wouldn’t have to put out a list of animals the captains could bring. Of course, he was aware of his captains’ little quirks and tendencies, but he trusted them and believed that they would be sensible enough to know. Visibly not. Between Jack’s snake and Yami’s beasts, he would have to think about the groups carefully.
“You’ll be patrolling in duos, so please, get along and above all, control your pets. Considering that Yami’s… pets are a little… aggressive—”
“Oh, come on Julius! They’re cute little balls of fur and love.”
“It’s probably better to pair up Yami and William. A ficus should not be in immediate danger.”
Julius preferred not to talk about the civilians being in danger. Surely, Yami could handle these beasts. And if anything was to happen, William had healing magic. It would be fine.
It should be fine.
Perhaps.
♣
And that was how Yami and William ended up walking around in the streets with a ficus and three wild beasts on a leash.
“I think that people are scared, Yami.”
“Yeah. Your mask’s ugly.”
“I think that your three enormous beasts might scare them off more.”
“You brought a ficus to a Bring your pet to work day.”
“We do not have pets at the Golden Dawn headquarters, there’s a no pet policy.”
“Uh? Boring.”
“When Hamon joined, he had a cat, Gourmet, a marvelous animal truly… but we found out that David was allergic to cat hair. He kept sneezing and crying. So we had to leave Gourmet to another family. Next, we had a pet lizard, except that Klaus is terrified of reptiles. One day, the lizard escaped and Klaus refused to leave his room. Even when David re-captured the lizard, Klaus wouldn’t go out. When he finally did, he kept hugging the walls for days, just to be sure. So we also crossed reptiles off the list. Dorothy once gifted me one of their capybaras, Peter,—”
“What the hell is a capybara?”
“It’s a rodent. A big rodent, the size of a dog. But the poor thing was too sad and lonely, away from the other capybaras and animals at the Coral Peacocks’ headquarters, so I had to send Peter back.”
“Hold up, how many pets do the Coral Peacocks have?”
“Yami, have you ever been to their base?”
“No.”
“You should. It’s therapeutic.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’d like it.”
“There are many different species; some are quite exotic. Juniors are expected to take care of these animals. A few of them end up at Owen’s with some grave injuries. Not all species are docile.”
“What the hell? And the Bulls are the weird squad?”
“I think that your level of weirdness is comparable; however, the Peacocks are more sympathetic and get a little less in trouble.”
Yami sighed, “So, how did you end up with a… what’s this thing’s name?”
“It’s a ficus.”
“What a dumb name for a whole lot of leaves.”
“So, after Peter, we also gave up on rodents. Letoile got us a goldfish a few months after joining, and I thought that a goldfish would be fine; you can’t be allergic to a goldfish, it’s not scary, it doesn’t require too much attention… Everybody loved this goldfish. But he died prematurely and the squad mourned him for weeks. My squad members were devastated. We buried him in the backyard, Mimosa made a wonderful wreath of flowers for his tomb upon her arrival and I make sure that every new member knows about our late goldfish. His name was Admiral. We still hold annual ceremonies for his death. We loved him dearly.”
“I don’t need the details, Goldie.”
“So now, we don’t have pets. But there’s this ficus of mine that we take turns in watering.”
“You know what? I think we both gathered a weird squad, except that yours looks like it blends alright in society when mine is just openly not fitting in.”
“You might be right. How did you end up with these beasts?”
“I found them. Their parents had just died, so I took them with me.”
“Sounds like something you’d do.”
They walked in silence for a while. William had no idea if Marx’s plan was working; no civilians had approached them. It was understandable, as they were walking around with three drooling beasts and a ‘whole lot of leaves’. William looked around. He knew he was responsible for all that destruction, for the distrust in Magic Knights. Only Julius, Marx, the Captains and a few Knights knew the truth and the role William played. William still had trouble looking Fuegoleon in the eye and it was hard not to stare at his lost arm. William often found Nozel staring at him as if he was waiting for him to make one wrong step. The remaining captains, Kaiser, Dorothy, Rill and Charlotte had been possessed by elves and were still quite unsure about how they should feel. Among all of that, William was standing, guilty but silenced for the sake of holding the kingdom together when all he wanted was to be punished and atone for his sins. Only Yami and Jack seemed to not care; it was like they had already forgotten everything that had gone down that fateful night.
Well about Yami… William wasn’t sure. It felt like he had been a little more distant. Not much. Just… a little. After all, it wasn’t too surprising. William had killed Julius– or rather, he had let it happen. William had also enabled two of Yami’s squad members, whom Yami was protective of, to be possessed by elves and attack members of the Bulls. It was understandable.
Maybe William didn’t only want to atone for his sins. He just wanted Yami and whatever they used to have… back.
“Do you wanna pet them?” Yami asked suddenly.
“Your three metres tall growling and drooling beasts?”
William stared at the beasts. There was a saying that pets were like their owners. So maybe they were just like Yami: kind-hearted behind a very gruff, mean, intimidating and arguably scary appearance.
“They’re adorable, I swear. But they still try to nibble on the kid every time he tries to feed them, so watch out,” Yami said in a laugh. “They don’t eat leaves so at least your ficker is safe.”
William chuckled, “I think I’ll pass.”
Yami smiled, “I’ve missed that.”
“What?”
“Your laugh. It’s been a while.”
William’s mind was blank, so he decided on walking down the street again, holding his ficus tighter.
“Pets do elevate the mood. Maybe Marx’s idea wasn’t as bad as we thought it was.”
Yami raised an eyebrow, “You’re giving mushroom head too much credit.”
“Maybe. I think I’ll try petting your beasts.”
“Uh, really?”
“Yes. It might show the terrified citizens surrounding us that it is, in fact, a perfectly safe activity.”
“Yeah, it’s not. But go ahead.”
William stopped and stared at the three before raising his hand slowly and dropping it on the beast that looked the less aggressive. It was surprisingly soft and warm. William found himself smiling before he could stop himself and turned his head to glance at Yami, only to find him staring at him with a bright smile.
“‘kay, the little guy hasn’t tried to eat you so I guess he likes you,” Yami said.
William didn’t know how Yami could call the beast a ‘little guy’ because he was anything but little.
“You were right. He is nicer than he looks.”
“You should come by the base sometime. Come pet him or whatever. Maybe grab a drink with me. I’ll kick the idiots out.”
William’s hand stopped. He resumed the stroking calmly as he answered, “Yes, sure. I’d like that.”
“‘kay, good. Tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow is fine by me.”
Now, William’s hand was automatically stroking the beast, a thin smile on his lips.
Maybe it would get better.