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It’s a trap, Rajura thinks with a frown as he observes the Troopers spread around the room at strategic points.
He should have known that a standing invitation to visit the house the whelps were using as a ‘homebase’ was too good, even if the scholar had sounded and looked genuine when she had said they’d be welcome.
Lady Kayura certainly had been. But the Masho themselves…
Besides him, he can feel Anubisu and Naaza come up to the same realization as him, their bodies tensing minutely before relaxing as they affect disinterest. Still, Naaza checks over the nearest windows, which way to Kongo is standing near, while Anubisu’s lips thin at the sight of Suiko and Kourin both blocking the doors.
Tenku, sitting in the couch with a grin, is watching them with a look that makes Rajura extra wary. He has always felt that the blue-haired youth was the most dangerous of the Troopers, and he never had a reason to change his mind. Especially not right now. For all Rajura knows, HE is the one who organized his fellow Troopers around the room.
“Gentlemen,” Tenku – Touma, Rajura tries to remind himself – dips his head in their direction, faux-casually. “Why don’t you take a seat? The four of us would like to have a… discussion with you.”
Rajura glances at his fellow Masho, who look back at him with the same bemused expression, not sure what it is about.
There are plenty of ‘things’ the Troopers might want to discuss, and none of them are nice. It could be about the Invasion itself and their actions and fights. It could be about Suiko, Kongo and Kourin’s capture and subsequent torture at the hands of Badamon’s cohorts.
But, Rajura thinks, he has the sneaky suspicion it’s NOT about any of those events, even if the youths have likely not forgotten nor forgiven. They just consider it a lower priority than what they want to discuss right now.
Something they have carefully waited for until the three surviving Masho (and Rajura stoically doesn’t let himself feel pain or regret about Shuten’s absence) were gathered, and a few key individuals had left the house entirely.
The tiny boy who follows the Troopers around, for example, is outside playing with the tiger (who had definitely eyed them as if they were lunch), out of harm way if by any luck the ‘discussion’ the Troopers want to have degenerates into a fight.
More telling, however, is the lack of feminine presence in the house.
Lady Kayura has been dragged outside and in town by Nasutei-san, the house’s owner and steadfast ally of the Troopers, the older woman insisting Kayura HAD to come with her shopping for more casual, wearable outfits to put on when visiting the Ningenkai, and of course Rekka – Ryo – was coming too, because she needed a few things for herself as well.
Not that Rekka had looked enthused when she had also been pushed out by her fellow Troopers, but she had borne it with an air of long-suffering that belied the fact it wasn’t the first time the fierce warrior woman had been bullied into following the commands of the older female.
“I think the three of us will remain standing, if you do not object,” Rajura answers casually, crossing his arms over his chest to glare at Tenku while Anubisu grumbles under his breath and Naaza stands shock-still, ready to jump into action at the slightest provocation.
The Troopers don’t look like they want violence – at least not right away – but it isn’t hard to see and feel the tension in their own bodies, and the disapproval and suspicion in their eyes.
“Suit yourselves,” Tenku answers as if he doesn’t care and likely he doesn’t. He had just been polite.
“What’s the big idea here?” Naaza finally snaps, unnerved as he watches Kongo ‘casually’ flex his fists. “Is it a battle you want? Revenge for our past actions?”
“No,” Suiko answers before Tenku can. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d like nothing more than to settle a score or two with you,” he warns, the usual sweetness of his eyes replaced by cold anger. “But it’s not what’s today is about. What we want is to deliver a warning.”
“About?” Anubisu asks with just a touch of wariness. He’s not really worried, Rajura thinks, but better to appear as if the pups’ display is cause for concern, least they anger more.
“About Ryo,” Kongo says flatly. “And about wandering eyes.”
Aaaaaah, Rajura thinks, and he knows Anubisu and Naaza comes to the same realization as him in the same breath.
THIS is what it’s all about, isn’t it?
“I do not know what gave you the idea we may have been looking at Rekka in an inappropriate way, but I assure you that none of us have ever meant the girl any disrespect,” Rajura intones as calmly as he can while the Troopers all stare at him with a flat expression and faces that could be carved from stone.
Naaza coughs awkwardly behind him and Rajura winces. Alright, maybe Naaza HAD been purposedly disrespectful toward the girl while fighting, but Rajura certainly hadn’t, and Anubisu had scarcely ever fought Rekka in battle, so it wasn’t as if he could have paid offense, at least on purpose.
“We certainly do not now,” he amends quickly.
“And still, you look at her,” Kourin states plainly, his eyes intent. “We all saw you glancing and staring, so do not bother deny it.”
“Not to mention, always referring to her as ‘the girl’ instead of her name,” Suiko snips.
Anubisu breathes in. “We’re not… doing it on purpose,” he states carefully. On that, he’s honest, at least on his part. “But we have grown unaccustomed to the presence of female companions over the years we spent serving Arago. Rekka is… distracting.”
And the fact she’s relatively pretty isn’t helping, Rajura thinks for himself.
… Alright, Rekka is more than ‘relatively’ pretty. She’s cute, despite the fact she’s unkept and wild and very unlike most of the women Rajura ever met.
It makes her alluring.
Not in a serious way, mind, at least not for him, because Rajura prefers older girls, more refined ones (like Nasutei-san, his mind whispers to him), but those are his tastes, and he knows Naaza and Anubisu (and even Shuten, when he was around) have different ones.
Still, none of them IS stupid enough to stare at Rekka and get their imagination working, no matter what the Troopers seem to think.
But… their eyes wandering right back to her when they see her move or enter a room, or roughhousing with the male Troopers, as if her gender was of no consequences… Surely they can be excused for that?
“She doesn’t look or dress like a woman, either,” Naaza sniffs, giving his own explanation. “I do understand that fashion and dressing norms have shifted, but even the sch… Nasutei-san’s clothes and allures are more feminine than Rekka’s. It’s hard not to stare when you know her sex and cannot reconcile it with the way she presents herself outside of her armor.”
The Troopers exchange looks of their own, and Rajura itches, wondering what they are thinking about, and what messages they are silently communicating between them. What do they know about Rekka and her looks that the Masho do not?
“Ryo is a tomboy,” Kongo eventually shrugs. “She prefers pants and baggy clothes over skirts and dresses, and that’s perfectly fine,” he finishes with a hint of warning, daring the Masho to say anything. They’re not fools, so they don’t. “Doesn’t make her less of a girl, or a freak. That’s clear?” he punches one of his palms twice to punctuate the end of his sentence.
“We never said anything of the like,” Rajura interjects smoothly.
If Rekka is a freak, it’s not for the lack of femininity, but for her unwavering determination and her ability to channel the Kikoutei power and kill Demon Lords.
“And you’d better not,” Kongo grumbles.
“So, you only stare because she doesn’t act like a girl?” Suiko butts in with narrowed eyes. “Are you going to pretend you are NOT going to develop an interest in her?”
“We’re not Shuten!” Naaza snaps before Anubisu or Rajura can say anything.
Rajura isn’t sure wherever he wants to strangle the Doku Masho or not for those words. Great job, reminding the whelps that Shuten Douji once (and likely still held by the time of his death) more than a passing fancy for Rekka.
… No wonder they’re eyeing the other Masho as if they’re a threat to Rekka’s virtue, and he doesn’t mean her armor’s one, Rajura internally grimaces.
“We aren’t going to pounce on the girl like a cat on an unsuspecting mouse! Give us some credit here! I bet he never had to deal with that conversation, too,” the green-haired young man grumbles under his breath.
“Her name is Ryo, not ‘girl’,” Kourin snaps just as Tenku starts to laugh.
Everyone stares at him, nonplussed as he throws his head back and almost fall from the couch. “You… you think Shuten got away scot-free?” he wheezes out between the chuckles.
“… didn’t he?” Anubisu asks before Rajura can as Tenku manages to get his hilarity under control.
“If you must know, I had this exact conversation with Shuten as well,” Tenku reveals, his grin wider than ever, though it looks a little wider now, and Rajura has to blink.
“You did?” he can’t help but ask. “When?”
“Oh, he spent a night here with us before Ryo and I headed in the Youjakai to save the others,” Tenku says easily. It doesn’t seem to surprise the other Troopers, so Rajura assumes they knew, or at least had been made aware ‘something’ had been said. “And I took him asides this very night and let him know that if I saw him anywhere Ryo’s bedroom door, if I had even the slightest suspicion that he’d do anything untoward or if he let a hand wander where Ryo didn’t like, I WOULD shoot him in the dick.”
Rajura just stares, trying to wrap his mind about the casual way Tenku has dropped the information.
“And just to show you how serious I am, I have to inform you that Nasutei threatened Shuten too,” Tenku’s grins has widened, to the point it threatens to split his face.
“Her?” Naaza blinks in amazement. “How could a simple human even threaten Shuten?”
Touma chuckles darkly. “By showing him a pair of rusty garden shears and letting him know in no uncertain terms that if he did anything to hurt her 'little sister', then former Masho or not, she was going to cut off his balls with the aforementioned shears and then force-feed them to him.”
Silence, for a whole minute.
“What?” Tenku shrugs at the look the Masho give him. “Just because she has no armor doesn’t mean she can’t be protective. Which reminds me,” he says as he reaches under a couch cushion, “she may not be part of today’s little ‘discussion’, but she did ask me to pass the message.”
He dramatically waves a pair of shears in the air. Sure enough, there is rust on the blades as he makes sure all three Masho caught sight of it.
Rajura isn’t surprised when Naaza starts cackling like a mad man, doubling over and holding his stomach as his laughter increase. He’s tempted to himself “Oh… Oh, my god, his face,” Naaza manages to gasp. “I wish I had seen his face!”
“Did he heed the warning?” Anubisu asks, lips quirking with mirth.
Tenku shrugs. “I didn’t have to shoot him, if that’s what you’re asking. I suppose you could say he listened.” His eyes are considering as he watches the Masho one by one. Whatever he sees make him tilt his head in consideration. “So, are your intentions toward Ryo honorable, or do we have to dig shallow graves in the forest?”
Suiko looks very much like he’d like to dig those graves already, though the others are more measured.
Rajura sighs. “I do not touch little girls,” he informs the Troopers with the utmost serious. One or two twitch, obviously not pleased to be likened to mere children, but … Rajura isn’t so unaware of the modern world that he hasn’t noticed how the Troopers are treated by adults they meet. A youth of fourteen or fifteen would have already been considered an adult back in the days, but not anymore, it seems. Even without this interesting shift in perception, Rajura has never found much interest in girls who were more than one year or two his junior. They were usually lacking in wits, maturity or intellect, which were huge turn-offs as far as he was concerned. “And even if she was older, I can assure you she’s not my type,” he continues easily.
He carefully doesn’t mention that Nasutei-san is nicer to look at than at Rekka for him; no need to tempt fate. Also, he’s not sure he wants to be someone to get ideas and use those garden shears on him.
Naaza harrumphs. “I’m still trying to untangle my mind from years upon years of mind games and manipulations. I do not have time to consider sex, be it with a woman or a man, thank you very much.”
Because Naaza beds both genders indifferently, but he has a slight preference for a sturdy man’s muscled body over a female’s soft curves, Rajura suddenly remembers. Naaza had told him as much… a long, long time ago… and Rajura had forgotten. Fuck, he can’t believe he had forgotten THAT, or the way Naaza used to look at Shuten when the redhead’s back was turned – especially at Shuten’s backside – while Rajura rolled his eye at him.
Which Naaza had stopped to do… for about as long as Rajura had forgotten the Doku Masho’s preferences.
Fuck Badamon and Arago, the Gen Masho thinks with vindication. Just how much little bits of knowledge about his fellow Masho has Rajura forgotten? Have they ALL forgotten?
Anubisu is silent for much longer than Naaza, and his shoulders have dropped, giving him an almost hesitant attitude, and ooooh, Rajura is going to strangle him if he DOES say Rekka is his kind of girl. Which she likely is, come to think; Anubisu was always more rugged than them all, not minding fiery personalities.
The Troopers seem to have sensed the hesitation, because they’ve all narrowed their eyes at the Yami Masho, especially Kourin and Kongo. Tenku, however, doesn’t seem too disgruntled. Trusting Anubisu? Or trusting that the Yami Masho knows they are perfectly serious about the graves?
“… I do not intend to do anything,” Anubisu finally says stiffly. “I am not going to lie and say that the g… That Ryo does not intrigues me and that I do not wish to get closer to her, to see what she is like, but I am not looking to… I’m not even sure what I want,” he admits, looking away.
That doesn’t really help, in Rajura’s opinion, but the Troopers seem considering.
“Hmm, at least you’re honest,” Suiko says after a moment of carefully looking at Anubisu with narrowed eyes.
“Did we pass the test?” Rajura can’t help but ask with a roll of his eye, exasperated by the whole conversation.
“We’re not about to murder you, clean the house and burn the bodies before Nasutei is back with the girls; I think that mean you pass, yes,” Tenku says. “But if anything ever sets Ryo off…” he warns.
“Does she even know what you’re up to?” Naaza asks with a raised eyebrow. “The Rekka I know do not send others fight her battles for her.”
Fair point, Rajura thinks.
“She does not,” Kourin admits, his earlier stance partially relaxed. “And she’s unlikely to be impressed with us for taking actions behind her back. However, she’s dear to us and we won’t let anyone break her heart or toy with her feelings.”
Anubisu looks at his light counterpart and hums. “You consider her a sister, and not a potential romantic or sexual partner, ever. Aren’t you?”
The Troopers do not nod, but the way they look at the Masho is telling.
“I do, yes,” Kourin admits. “I’m likely to have the same sort of conversation with any man one of my sisters ever bring home.”
Uh. Rajura hadn’t known Kourin had sisters; it never came up in the conversations he spied on between the Troopers during the war. That does explain the protectiveness, though.
“Same. I consider Ryo like one of my little sisters, and I WILL punch the lights out of anyone who doesn’t treat her like the treasure she is. Got it?” Shuu says with the utmost serious.
“Isn’t Rekka older than you?” Rajura can’t help but ask, because while he can’t pinpoint the exact age of each Trooper, he has spied and listened on conversations enough to have gathered a few details here and there, namely that Tenku was the youngest of the Troopers, and that Kongo was younger than Rekka.
Kongo shrugs. “By not even three weeks, it doesn’t count for me,” the boy answers calmly.
“I already did the threatening act with my sister’s fiancé, and she’s much older than me,” Suiko says blandly, and if he doesn’t say ‘Ryo is my sister’ as clearly as Kongo, the feeling is there all the same.
Tenku waves a hand. “Only child there, but very invested in my friends’ lives and potential love life too.” He tilts his head. “Ryo is important to us. So is Nasutei,” and his eyes narrow a bit at Rajura, who carefully doesn’t react.
Look like Tenku picked on his attraction. Damnit.
“And,” the blue-haired youth continues as if nothing is wrong, “I do not doubt that if one of us behaved in a way you find offending toward Kayura, you’d have the same sort of conversation with us.”
Now Rajura blinks, and he’s sure Naaza and Anubisu are doing the same. Where did the boy ever pick the idea that they’d defend Kayura’s honor…?
Well, of course they would, because she’s their Empress now, and she holds the Oni armor, which makes her part of them, but to threaten the first teenage male who’d lay their eyes on her…
… They would, wouldn’t they, the white-haired man realizes dimly? They wouldn’t do it out of brotherly affection, like the Troopers are doing for Rekka, but they would nonetheless, because it’s Kayura, and as powerful as she is, she’s still just a girl, barely older than a child, and they cannot fathom not keeping an eye on her, in case someone try to manipulate her and her feelings and…
Uh.
Rajura glares at Touma’s perfectly relaxed expression. “You,” he states, pointing his finger at the boy, “are a menace.” Curse the boy for putting those ideas in his head!
Touma just grins as if nothing is wrong in the universe and claps his hands together, “And I enjoy every minute of it,” he proclaims. “Alright, now we’re cleared the air, anyone want a drink? ‘Cause I don’t know about you, but I’d die for a ramune right now.”
End