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Chuuya hadn't always known what these strings meant. He didn't understand what they were, what they meant, why they were here. He didn't care to understand either, he was busy trying to survive until Shirase came along.
It was an interesting mixture though.
Chuuya plucked at the strings attached to his fingers, wondering how they never got tangled. Well, there were a few entangled strings. Blue and black entangled strings stretching across the sky and beyond Suribachi City’s borders. Those two went together, stretching beyond the human eye's limit.
The rest of the strings stretched in other ways, attached to things he could not know. And even when he asked around, it was only to the other Sheep, who were kids. They didn't know much about the strings either, so Chuuya never got any new information other than what he could glean from watching.
Red and blue strings would intertwine, rarely. Tangle together into a mess and knot some people together by their string connecting them. The red and black string intertwining was rare too. Not like, rare rare, but not as rare as the blue and black strings intertwining on Chuuya's fingers. The purple twined around the blue often. Often enough for Chuuya to predict it. The white and black almost never interacted. It was like they repelled each other.
And no one knew what the strings meant. Not in Suribachi City.
It wasn't until a person came to Suribachi City, from the outside, hiding from the world around them. She stared at Chuuya's strings, all of her own strings cut and limp around her fingers.
“By the stars, you're either blessed or cursed.” The woman whispered.
“What do you mean?” Chuuya asked as he lifted the weight of her luggage and helped her find her lodging in the decrepit city.
“Your strings. You have so many.” The woman said as she took her luggage back. “I have never seen someone with so many strings, or so many entangled strings.”
“What do they mean?” Chuuya immediately asked, hungry for information. The Sheep never wished for information from the outside, they saw no profit to it. If there was nothing that affected them, why would they need to know it? “What do the colors of the strings mean?”
“Red is romantic love.” The woman banker pulled out a red thread that had been twined around her own finger. It was limp. Cut. Severed in two. She or another had decided that the bond they were born with was unnecessary. “It is an encompassing thing to find the red string, to be pulled along by them.”
She spoke of her red string in a derogatory manner, and Chuuya felt hints of upset stir in his stomach.
“Blue is platonic.” The woman looked more upset about this one, gently holding the cut string. “These people are ones that support you and love you without the restriction of romance. They focus on your other features, not just the romantic ones.”
Chuuya supposed he was alright with that. But why were some of his black strings tangled with his other strings?
“Purple is a familial love.” The woman held it a little rougher than the others, but with no less love than the blue string. “These are the ones who are to support you when your blue and red strings do not. The love of a purple string is not to be underestimated.”
Chuuya likes those strings, that explanation. A family, huh? He's never had one before. And he has a few purple strings, so there are a few people out in the world beyond Suribachi City who will be that family for him.
Right?
“White are allies.” The woman used to have a few allies, Chuuya can see by the strings. “These are the ones that stand by you in battle, will die by your side in battle. They will never desert you in your time of need.”
Chuuya had a feeling that she was speaking from experience. That her allies had fallen in battle alongside her. Her eyes shown with a tiredness that only a warrior could have, even though she claimed herself a banker.
But she still hasn't explained one color.
“What about black?” The boy asked, plucking at the intertwined strings on his fingers. “What is black?”
The woman's eyes grew sorrowful. Her lips grew into a thin line and she looked away from Chuuya. She clearly did not want to tell, but Chuuya wanted to know. He needed to know. He had to know.
“Black are enemies. They are people who you will have opposition with. Friction. Pain.” The woman said. “People connected to you by black strings would sooner strike you down than build you up.”
Chuuya kept his thoughts private.
But they whirled in his head.
How is one supposed to live life without friction?
It was a fact he knew like a friend. Friction was something that pushed him to be better with his magic, if he could not cast it smoothly at first then he would endeavor to cast it better. Friction helped Chuuya grow.
Perhaps his black strings would help him, not hinder him?
Friction was something that held you back, yes. But it was something that Chuuya used to push himself forward.
And his black strings were intertwined, entangled, with other colored strings. Blue and purple were predominant colors that intertwined with black on Chuuya's fingers.
His family and his friends would show that he could be stronger than any old mage the kingdom beyond Suribachi City has ever seen.
“Thank you for telling me.” He finally decided on. “I don't think I ever caught your name?”
The woman's red eyes were sad and calm as they looked into his blue ones. “I am Kouyou.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuuya didn't leave to seek his strings out.
He didn't follow the entangled, ephemeral wires that attached him to another soul on the other side. He couldn't, even though he knew what they meant now.
The Sheep needed him. Suribachi City needed him. His magic helped this place a great deal, he couldn't just throw away so many lives that depended upon him.
Chuuya's plant-based magic may not look like much to the outsider, but it was the only thing that kept the people of Suribachi City alive for some winters. It was the only thing that kept people fed. That kept people around.
He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, his vines guiding the way and showing him his normal routes. The people who knew him waving and the people who didn't were curious. They would find out with time who Chuuya was.
Sliding down a vine and getting to the ground was easier than taking the stairs, in Chuuya's humble opinion.
Suribachi City has rich soil, so it was ripe for Chuuya's magic. Perfect, almost. And Chuuya was completely self-taught. Something he was utterly smug about, when the newcomers came to Suribachi City and were surprised that everyone could eat well, and have clean water.
Chuuya ensured that it would happen, even to his own detriment.
His body ached sometimes, the work of ensuring filtered water and good food to others weighing him down.
He wanted to find his strings, oh, how he wanted to. To be with the people who would drive him to be better, who would help him through life and show him that he wasn't alone, more than a silly string connected to his fingers could? Chuuya wanted that. He yearned for it.
But he couldn't leave Suribachi City.
They needed him, the Sheep needed him. No one outside of Suribachi City knew of his existence, Kouyou let him know that when he asked.
The only people who knew about Chuuya outside of the city he loved were the people on the other ends of the strings.
And no one had come to find Chuuya on the other end of their tangled strings yet, so they were either young, or like Chuuya, they were stuck in a place that they could not leave.
So Chuuya stayed in Suribachi City, not leaving and healing the land and feeding the people.
He wanted to leave though. He wanted to leave and chase his strings, find the people on the other end so he could finally have people that understood him. Shirase and Yuan were nice enough. They were okay.
But they didn't get it. Nearly all their strings attached them to the Sheep, and very few of the strings of the Sheep soared out beyond the horizon of Suribachi City.
All of Chuuya's strings soared beyond the horizon line of Suribachi City.
He stood on the highest tower of Suribachi City, watching his strings waver in the wind, but still standing strong and holding strong. Someone was still on the other side of all his strings, as tangled as they were.
He wondered if anyone would come to see him. If anyone would try to see who was on the other side of the tangled strings in Suribachi City, if they would be brave enough to dare to enter Suribachi City’s borders.
His people on the other side of the strings would be interesting, he was quite sure.
He had a black and blue entangled string. That one seemed shorter than anyone else's. Maybe that one would come to find him soon.
There was a purple string that was also nearby. Chuuya wondered how close he could get to the border and tug on the string and get them interested.
A red string soared beyond the horizon line that his eyes made. Chuuya played with the string, making it vibrate and sending vibrations down the line to a potential lover. Whoever they were, Chuuya hoped that they were able to hold a conversation.
A white string wrapped around his pinky, and Chuuya wondered if he would swear loyalty to this person.
Black and purple twined around another finger, and Chuuya wondered how a person could be a family member and an enemy.
More strings wrapped around his fingers. Lots of purple and white. Some black. A few blue.
Standing up above everyone like he is, he looked like a spider creating a web around him with his entangled strings.
Chuuya didn't realize he was the fly trapped in the spider's web.
~~~~~~~~~~
The purple string was getting short and shorter.
Chuuya would never admit how excited he was. He hadn't even noticed, not until Yuan pointed it out.
But once she did, he couldn't help but watch it. The string shortened by the day, and Chuuya knew, just knew, that one of his soulmates, one of his people, a person who was even going to be like a family member to him, was coming closer to Suribachi City.
He was slightly scared. He was more than excited. He was so happy and fearful.
Chuuya didn't know who was on the other end of the string. As lovely as the thought of a family member could be, Kouyou's cut strings showcased that even family could turn on someone. Could hurt someone. Could destroy a relationship. Even a fated family member or ally or platonic love could hurt you.
Chuuya was scared, and so he didn't even think twice about taking a quick mission that turned into an all day one to grow a greenhouse worth of food on the other side of Suribachi City when the people begged for his assistance.
It was only when he was running across the rooftops, gliding along thanks to his plants, did his string tug at him. It nearly pulled it off his feet, he nearly fell off the roofs. He turned, stopping and staring down at the new person in Suribachi City. His soulmate, the one that was connected by the purple string.
His soulmate stared up at him, blinking. The eyes reflected the dying light of the sunset, mirrored in those eyes. Silver hair framed the androgynous face, Chuuya couldn't tell if his destined family member was male or female or simply other.
Chuuya stepped off the side of the building, his soulmate nearly darting under him to catch him when a vine erupted under Chuuya for him to slide under. The sunset eyes grew wide, and the soulmate backed up.
They stood in front of each other, not saying a word. Each simply staring at the other, taking their soulmate in.
Chuuya studied the cut of the clothes, determining that they were wearing male clothes at least.
“I'm Chuuya.” He finally broke the silence. “I'm Nakahara Chuuya. It's really nice to meet you at last.”
The boy bit his lip. “I'm Atsushi.” He said, reaching to play with the strings around his fingers. “It's really nice to meet you too.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Atsushi was a little skittish.
That was Chuuya's honest opinion after a few days of interacting with his soulmate. He honestly quite loved having his little soulmate around. He was skittish like a mouse, but he could be as sharp and proud as a lion.
He also had magic too.
Atsushi's magic was one of moonlight and shadows, capable of blinding someone with the light of the moon or ensnaring their eyes with the darkness of the shadows. He blended into the shadows like one of them and could stand out like a moonbeam if he wanted to. His dual magic nature was lovely, and it talks about magic so much fun.
But Atsushi had been sad. Afraid. Angry. And Chuuya was determined to get to the bottom of it.
He found his soulmate that was tied to him on purple string on one of the vines closest to the moon. Staring out and away from Suribachi City.
“What's wrong?” Chuuya asked. He didn't have to specify. He didn't have to ask for specifics. His soulmate knew what he was asking and knew that what he would say would reveal everything or nothing.
Atsushi reached out in front of him, away from Chuuya, and formed a creature from the moon’s beams. He held it in his hands, Chuuya couldn't see what it was. He didn't know if he wanted to know what it was.
“What would you do to me, if I told you I was a spy?” Atsushi asked, turning to look at him. The fifteen year old was taller than Chuuya, who was nineteen and had been stuck at his current height for the past four years.
“A spy?” Chuuya sounded out slowly, watching his soulmate tense. The purple line between them tense. “Why would you be a spy?”
Atsushi looked down at the created being in his hands, a small bird made of moonlight shining there. “Because there are people beyond this city’s borders, Chuuya. People who want the rare plant magic user for themselves. People who would stop at nothing to have that magic for themselves.”
Chuuya tilted his head, watching his soulmate. “And you were sent to find me by one of these people?”
Atsushi nodded, tears like liquid starlight flowing down his cheeks. “I didn't want to– not even before I knew– I–”
Chuuya held up a hand, and Atsushi shut his mouth with a flinch. That made him feel guilty, but he didn't need Atsushi to explain himself.
Atsushi was not suited for spy work. The delicate game that was played. His soulmate was a little too brash to be sneaking around in the shadows, even if that was his magic.
“I don't blame you.” He said softly. He couldn't. How could he? Atsushi was his little soulmate, his newest friend. And he had no choice, from what he could see. Atsushi did not look down on those in poverty. On those in Suribachi City.
Someone must have plucked him out of a place like this, much like they were trying to pluck Chuuya out. All because they wanted his magic. Atsushi's magic, Chuuya's magic. It made no difference to those who were greedy.
“You have to send a report in?” Chuuya asked, and Atsushi nodded, staring at the bird he created.
“If I don't, Dazai-san will raze the city.” Atsushi said softly. “And I don't– I can’t– these people– they deserve to live–!”
“I know.” Chuuya placed a hand on his little soulmate's shoulder. “I know Atsushi. I know.”
Liquid stars poured from his little soulmate's eyes freely now.
It made Chuuya's decision for him.
The purple string between them taut as it glowed in the moonlight.
Family doesn't deserve to cry.
“When do we leave?”
~~~~~~~~~~
They had barely left Suribachi City’s borders when they were waylaid by Dazai Osamu.
“Atsushi-kun! You got him!”
The voice grated on Chuuya's ears, and the entangled black and blue strings grew taut on his fingers.
They led to a boy who looked Chuuya's age, sitting on a tree stump, dressed in black.
He also had strings leading to Atsushi, purple and blue tangled and entwined together.
Chuuya hated him on sight.
“Dazai-san, hi.” Atsushi said softly, shifting on his feet. Likely not knowing how to act in front of two of his familial and platonic soulmates. Who, by their strings, were enemies but also loved each other platonically.
Chuuya decided then and there to lean into the hatred of enemies route.
Dazai looked at Chuuya.
Chuuya looked at Dazai.
Both saw the mutual hatred in each other's eyes, well, eye, in Dazai's case.
“Please try to get along.” Atsushi pleaded, standing between them.
Sorry kid, I don't even think your moon eyes will work. Chuuya thought as glared at the boy dressed in all black with a blank stare.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chuuya met the king of the realm who had sent Dazai and Atsushi after him, Mori Ougai, a few hundred days after they were travelling.
Going from one place to the next was harder than it should be, especially since they were travelling with a lot of people.
Boring, was how Chuuya would describe most of the time.
Well, no.
Most of the time was spent avoiding assassination attempts by his enemy Dazai.
It was ridiculous how the idiot thought he could poison Chuuya's water supply.
So Chuuya wouldn't call it boring, per se. Just time consuming. And the attempts were mostly stupid anyways.
But finally, they were in the city, Chuuya was dragged to the man in charge. He was staring down at a chessboard, and looked up to see Chuuya standing there, staring back at him.
Dazai and Atsushi bowed at the man, but Chuuya held firm. This man, even if he was a king, had not earned his loyalty yet. He would need to earn Chuuya's loyalty in order to make him bow.
“Come.” The man said, standing. His cloak moved around him like liquid shadow. “Walk with me, young mage.”
Chuuya walked beside the king, Mori Ougai, and listened. Listened as the man explained about the war ravaging their land. About how the people were dying. How everyone was famished and there was little to no food left for anyone. Soldier or child alike.
Chuuya remembered the cloth that Atsushi was wearing. Lower class. Sturdy, but not good for the skin. It probably hurt the boy, but he said nothing, soldiering on because others had it worse and Atsushi told himself that.
Mori stopped in front of a balcony, opening the doors and walking out to stare out over the city they had walked through quickly.
“My people chose me to lead them, Chuuya-kun.” Mori said, his back still turned to Chuuya. A rare show of trust in this day and age of war. “They chose me, and then we had no choice but to defend ourselves from this war that attacked us on all sides. I am being selfish in asking you to extend yourself from your home and take care of people you have no connection to.”
Except, Chuuya did have a connection to these people.
He had a connection to this king.
He had kept his hands hidden as they approached, hands in his pockets so the string was gone.
Chuuya now took his hands out, showing the string and letting it live again. The white string that tied his pinky to this man, a sign of loyalty and trust.
Chuuya knew now.
He never had a choice in saying no.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chuuya met the person on the other side of the blue and white entangled strings when he was sent to grow crops in the west.
He was exhausted, utterly exhausted, and Atsushi, who was his escort, was worried for him. He could see it in the pinch in Atsushi's brow.
But Chuuya couldn't stop.
The people here needed food. Everyone needed food. He could grow the people their food, so he shouldn't stop.
Not when he could lighten the King's load.
Chuuya had finished pumping magic into the earth’s crust, making the crops grow and shortening their growth time by many factors. He couldn't say them all, he was too exhausted to do so.
He just kneeled there for a minute, hands buried in the earth, wondering if he could pump out all of his energy, magical and nonmagical, and just end his suffering. It would be easier for everyone, if he did that. No more fighting over the person who could grow the food and make the grow times short.
The shitty war wouldn't be over, but Chuuya's life would be. Wouldn't that be amazing?
The dirt in front of him swam as he blinked and panted in exertion.
He felt like he had run a marathon, he felt like he could not draw breath.
Wouldn't it be better for everyone if he just died?
Chuuya passed out, keeled over onto his side. Displaced from his placement on his hands and knees, kneeling on the earth that he gave so much to.
He didn't hear Atsushi cry out for him, nor did he feel the gentle arms pull him from the ground and carry him to safety. He didn't feel the healing magic pour into his body, nor did he feel the cotton beneath his body as he rested.
He didn't know that his soulmates were waiting beside his bed until he woke up, eyes opening slowly and wincing when they did.
Atsushi looked at him with betrayed, angry eyes, and their string wavered. It did not break, but it wavered. Atsushi hit the ground in frustration, unable to hit Chuuya himself for being so stupid as to overwork his body.
On the other hand, Chuuya had found another soulmate.
Hirotsu had been displeased that this was how they met, with Chuuya passed out on the ground from overexerting himself.
Chuuya could not see how this could have ended differently however. He was overexerting himself before Hirotsu came along, before he met Atsushi. The only break he had ever gotten was when he was travelling with his enemy Dazai and meeting with Mori and getting kitted for missions.
Chuuya can survive. He can survive. He has so far, and his people are by his side now. He has more people to find too, some that he wants to kill.
He looked at the black strings, the pure black string. No entangled colors.
He'll kill that person, he swears it.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chuuya was back in the kingdom that Mori was ruling when his red string tugged and whipped and whirled.
Atsushi stared at it from his place of laying next to Chuuya on the grass, Dazai's eye studying it from his perch in the trees.
"You gonna go find them, Worm?" The taunt came. The grating insult is something that had become a fond nickname sometimes, it was related to Chuuya's magic. Worms populated the earth and helped the plants.
"Shut up, Airhead." Chuuya snapped. It was easy for Dazai to ask.
It was easy for Dazai to say. Dazai already had the person on the other end of his string, another man by the name of Kunikida Doppo. The damn Air mage was a stormbringer in nature, capable of creating whirlwinds and gales and destruction with a simple flick of his fingers. Dazai kept this power under wraps so no spies could leak it, often pretending to have no magic.
For an airhead, Dazai’s partner was grounded. Kunikida Doppo’s magic allowed him to summon metal from the ground, whatever metal he focused on and bring it to the surface. He helped keep Dazai calm and grounded.
Dazai was lucky in knowing and having Kunikida already.
Chuuya wasn't sure what the other person on the end of his red string would be like. The opposite of him? A complement?
Afraid.
That's what Chuuya was.
And who wouldn't be?
Meeting the red string was something Chuuya had thought about, sure. Just like he had thought about meeting Atsushi, or Hirotsu, or even meeting Dazai.
Thinking about something and actually meeting that person were two completely different things. Just because Chuuya was meeting his red string maybe today-ish didn't mean he was ready for it–
The castle rocked to its foundations, and the three of them were taking off. Atsushi melted into the shadows, delving into them to find information before popping back out and by their sides.
“The offending kingdom is making one last attack!” Atsushi panted as he ran beside them. “They all have magic! They're all mages!”
“Go hide.” Dazai and Chuuya snapped at the same time. Atsushi bristled, obviously wanting to fight.
“Atsushi, you're too inexperienced, you're more of a sneak and fight, not head-on fighter.” Chuuya explained, and Atsushi pressed his lips into a thin line as he melted into the shadows again.
Chuuya and Dazai burst into the throne room, Mori holding his own against the main attacker who had gray hair. Mori’s burning light magic was being used in a cold, calculating manner. Just like the king himself.
In contrast, the other king that was attacking was all fire, barely avoiding the burning light but just barely dodging it. It was clear he knew how to use his magic and he knew Mori’s magic limitations by his movements.
But Chuuya had trust in his king.
With Mori fighting the king that attacked their castle, Chuuya and Dazai could and did turn to the guards that were trying to flank Mori and engaged with them.
No one attacked their king’s back and got away with it.
Dazai threw whirlwinds and dust devils at the one with white hair with red tips, who drew his sword and launched himself at Dazai. The swordsman went watery to avoid the wind, and Chuuya felt slightly bad for Dazai as he raced to engage his own attacker.
Water versus wind wasn't exactly an easy combination. But Chuuya knew Dazai, it had been a little over a year of being in this castle. Dazai would be able to hold his own, hell, would probably trick his fighter and hurt them with their own power.
So Chuuya rushed to engage his own castle attacker.
Slamming his hands against the ground, Chuuya brought forward vines and thorns from the ground beneath the castle structure, coaxing them through the cracks and attacking the one that had tattoos under his eyes.
Chuuya noticed the red string running between them and it growing taut right as the vines slammed into the man with black hair.
Well. He thought, watching the man rise from the attack, not even acknowledging the red string. I can’t say this isn't an interesting way of meeting him.
If he wouldn't acknowledge their bond, their string, then neither would Chuuya.
This fight would end in the spilling of blood, Chuuya just didn't know whose blood would color the stones and feed his vines and thorns just yet.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chuuya's red string soulmate was known as Tecchou Suehiro.
The man had a magic that was undocumented in the kingdom that Chuuya was now a part of, but it was one that Chuuya actually knew quite well. At least from his time in Suribachi City.
After all, it was hard not to hear whispers of envy about users of earth magic. How if they were powerful enough, they could mountain tall enough to slash at the sky with, or could dig deep enough into the earth and pull the richest gems from it.
Anyone in Suribachi City would have been envious for such magic.
But right now?
Right now it was a pain in Chuuya's ass, trying to keep his soulmate from running off using this magic.
Magical shackles were tied around his soulmates wrists and ankles, keeping his earth magic from being used. The man still worked out, and refused to put a shirt on while doing it.
Chuuya refused to look at him while he did that.
The water magic user who Dazai had fought was in the next cell over, pacing and moving the chains, jingling them and making noise. Apparently that man was blind and saw the world through the water molecules in the air. Without the magic to help him see, the man was relying on other senses.
Chuuya, however, enjoyed creating vines and making the man stumble on the vines as he walked around his little abode in the cell, because the water user was as bad as that Airhead Dazai.
Tecchou had already promised to switch over to the kingdom that Mori was in charge of. Mori was taking this into account as he sorted out charges to the kingdom that tried to attack them in a last ditch effort.
People like Tecchou were not often given the choice. Much like Atsushi, they were simply swooped up from the streets and into a life that was not theirs and forced to become things that did not suit them. Tecchou preferred writing to war, and had promised to teach Chuuya how to write and read after he had served his sentence for playing his part in attacking the capital city and the castle.
Tecchou simply wanted to bring his purple string, a boy named Kenji as he had told Chuuya, with him into Mori’s kingdom. He had wanted to give Kenji a better life than the one the boy was currently living, and Chuuya could not begrudge his red string that. He often wished he could have met Atsushi sooner so he could have given the shadow-and-moonlight user a better life. It wouldn't have been perfect by any stretch, they would have been in Suribachi City.
But it would have been better than the damn orphanage that Atsushi had told Chuuya about.
Sometimes Chuuya wanted to track it down, that place that hurt his blue and purple entwined stringed soulmate.
But Atsushi only gave vague descriptions of the abuse he had gone through, and the people. So Chuuya would hold back the bloodthirst and instead strangle faceless bastards with his vines and impale them on his thorns in his dreams.
Life would be okay, Chuuya had determined.
It didn't matter if he met all his strings, if he killed his pure black strings or not.
Life would be okay.
~~~~~~~~~~
It was on the battlefield that Chuuya met his final three strings. Technically four, as the purple and black were entwined and tangled, but they were connected to the same person.
Three people on an offending side attacking Chuuya's kingdom that he had chosen as home.
Chuuya was unfortunately, starting to see a pattern forming here about his soulmates being on an offending side.
Chuuya ripped the ground beneath the offending side up, having his vines and his thorns pierce offending enemies as they wished to attack Dazai, who was summoning a storm to deal with them.
Atsushi was flickering in and out of the shadows, hitting soft spots and disappearing without a word. Without a sight.
His two pure black strings and the entwined purple and black strings grew taut, and Chuuya turned. Following where they led to his destined enemies.
He ran along the battlefield, sliding along his vines and decimating the enemy in his wake.
It was only when the ground grew too hard for his plants and his breath grew visible did he realize he was dealing with a winter mage.
The tangled purple and black strings led straight to a man with light blond hair and pale blue eyes. He had a hat on, and Chuuya could barely see his widening eyes as he stared at the strings between them.
Strings that were getting shorter with Chuuya's approach.
Strings that grew in length as Chuuya socked the taller man in the jaw and sent him flying.
Chuuya panted, trying to regain some sort of heat in his lungs, but the icy cold air was all that surrounded him. It pierced his lungs, and Chuuya realized he was too far from homebase lines to fully keep himself safe, not if this person decided to be like him and Dazai.
Airhead was a platonic bond, but also an enemy bond. They didn't really know how to make this work, but they did. It was more a healthy animosity nowadays anyway.
This guy was a purple string, family. He was a black string, enemy. Purple and black, what a horrible combination for Chuuya to face. And of course this one had winter powers. Why fucking not? Wasn't like Chuuya's life couldn't get harder.
Not like Chuuya couldn't work with this anyway, but he needed to focus on other things.
Like the guy manipulating fire magic and trying to fry him.
One of the black strings connected them, and Chuuya nodded to himself as he engaged the white haired man in battle.
He would kill this one and then try to find the other black string and kill them and then–
Atsushi popped out of Chuuya's shadow, clawing the white haired man across the face with a knife.
The man stumbled back, yelling and gripping at his face where blood was spilling and christening the ground.
“Wha– Atsushi!” Chuuya yelled, using a vine to loop around Atsushi's waist and pull him back. “What the hell–”
He saw Atsushi's face then.
It was wild. Atsushi's eyes were wild, unseeing. They were stuck somewhere in the past, in the throes of something Chuuya knew and didn't know, and Atsushi was gripping his side. Where his ribs were forever marred by another's touch.
Ah. Chuuya realized.
A person from Atsushi's past.
Atsushi knew and hated this person, which honestly said a lot. For all the time that Chuuya had known Atsushi, the boy had rarely hated someone. If ever, from Chuuya's perspective.
So for him to hate this person so heatedly, that meant that they did something to him that he could never forgive, or that they did something to someone that Atsushi could never forgive.
Either way, Chuuya would have a hand in killing this man. He would at least help Atsushi kill him. They both had black strings attached to this man with white hair and red eyes.
It was a hard battle for Chuuya, who had plant magic. This man’s fire magic made it hard for him to attack, the vines and thorns disintegrating in the fire.
Atsushi, however, was having a much easier time. Popping in and out of their shadows, slashing at the tender spots of the opponent and drawing blood.
It was good that he was drawing blood.
Almost all power of mages came from their blood. So long as their heart was pumping, they had magical energy. There was one exception to the blood rule, but it was so rare that barely anyone knew it. Chuuya only knew because Dazai had said something. Blood was the supplier of a mage’s power, and it was just the body that could give out after great feats from exhaustion.
As long as Atsushi was drawing blood and taking away the power from the blood, then Chuuya and Atsushi had more than a fighting chance.
Atsushi ended it all as Chuuya distracted, a knife through the throat and glaring the man in the eyes.
“You didn't break me.” Chuuya heard his little soulmate hiss. “You only made me stronger than you.”
Their black strings connecting them to this man with red as blood eyes and white as snow hair snapped. Broken in two. He was dead, and he would not come back.
Chuuya allowed his little soulmate the chance to say his goodbyes to the past before approaching, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Ready to continue this battle?” He asked softly. “You can head back to base to rest.”
Atsushi shook his head, his feet already sinking into the shadows. The tears in his eyes streaked like comets on his face, collecting the grime and dust from the battle and leaving cleaner streaks of skin in their wake. “We need to end this. Let's finish the fight so no one attacks the kingdom again.”
Chuuya nodded his head and took off after the last black string that was on his hand. Atsushi was safely hidden in his shadow, likely to spring out or go get help if needed.
The entwined, tangled black and blue strings on Chuuya's fingers were getting shorter alongside the black string, and his heart started to sink.
The wind hadn't picked up in a while, had it? He hadn't wandered that far, had he?
Dread pooled in his stomach, heavy like molten lead and deadly like quicksilver.
Chuuya used his magic as a boost, sending him closer and closer to where the wind was blowing stronger and stronger, almost becoming a storm or a hurricane.
The black string quivered, growing slack, then snapping back into place. Quiver, grow slack, snap into place. Quiver, grow slack, snap into place. Again and again and again and again and again an–
Chuuya swallowed bile as he came upon the scene.
Dazai, the damn Airhead, was facing off against a Phoenix mage.
Killing blow after killing glow rained upon the man with black hair and glowing purple eyes, burning straight into Dazai’s brown ones as he came back multiple times. Quiver, grow slack, snap into place. Again.
Dazai was getting anxious. Chuuya could see it in the way that his movements for magic were growing hurried, sharp. Commanding the wind instead of coaxing. Dazai couldn't win against the Phoenix mage, and who could blame him?
Phoenix mages didn't die. Ever. Not unless their soulmates all died.
The Phoenix mages were the one exception to the blood rule of magic. They drew power from their bond of souls, enemy, ally, platonic or romantic. It didn't matter.
Dazai was simply buying time for everyone. They both knew that.
There was only one string this Phoenix mage had. One string giving him his power and tying him to this world.
The string that tied him and Chuuya together.
“Atsushi, go help the Airhead. He looks like he needs it.” Chuuya said, and Atsushi sprung from the depths of the shadows of the Phoenix mage and attacked him from behind. Stabbing and slashing.
Chuuya stared, summoning a plant beside him as he did so. He wanted to engrain the image into his brain, claw it out. He closed his eyes and imagined all of his soulmates there. Should they take his body, should they open his head to take his brain, he wanted the image to be implanted there and passed onto whoever did such an act.
His black and purple strings twitched and twisted, growing taut from behind.
“You don't have to do this.”
“I do though.” Chuuya said, collecting the beans of the plant. At least twelve seeds to be sure and closing his hand around them. He looked back to the battle, noticing how Atsushi wasn't holding his own this time. Not against a foe like this. “I will not be a tether to someone who harms my other soulmates.”
A hand landed on his shoulder, squeezing, before letting go.
Chuuya tossed the beans into his mouth, chewing.
They tasted bland at first, before becoming overwhelmingly bitter. Chuuya nearly spat them back out, but resolved himself and swallowed.
He made the mistake of making eye contact with Dazai while he did so, whose face immediately grew horrified when he recognized the plant beside Chuuya.
“NO!”
Chuuya wasn't sure who said it. He was having trouble breathing. His chest was growing tight and he couldn't breathe. He coughed, trying to regain some air, there was something in his lungs. He could feel it.
He fell. He could feel his knees give out from under him, but he didn't hit the ground. Someone held him and pulled him to their body.
Chuuya was drowning on land, and he was perfectly fine with it.
If he died, he was taking the Phoenix mage with him. That had been his promise, take out the last two black strings on his fingers.
Dazai and Atsushi will just have to pick up my slack. Sorry. Was Chuuya's last thought before darkness overtook him.
~~~~~~~~~~
It was a quiet affair, burying Chuuya in the garden of victors. He would have hated anything big, all his soulmates knew that. The alive ones, anyway.
The Phoenix mage had died rather quickly, once the last tether to this life was gone. He would pop up in a different time, in another place, as all Phoenixes do. But that was for another time, another person. Not Osamu's problem now.
Osamu brushed his fingers over the simple headstone that they had made Chuuya. The limp tangled strings brushed against the headstone, and he grit his teeth.
“You damn Worm.” He hissed. “Who do you think you are, bringing us together like that and then throwing away your life to protect us? Huh? You hear me Chuuya? Next life, you and I are going to have words.”
The gravestone was silent. It was a stone after all, and rocks don't speak.
“You made Atsushi-kun cry! You aren't allowed to do that, we both decided that no one was allowed to make him cry!” Osamu thumped the gravestone. “When you come back, you have to answer for your crime!”
Osamu's voice was labored from his yelling, the wind howling with his emotions. “Damn Worm! Stupid Slug! Who do you think you are!? What are we to do now!?”
Another smack to the gravestone, and Osamu sank to his knees in front of it.
He panted, gritting his teeth. He had no tears to cry, he had dried up those rivers a long time ago. But it was times like these he wondered if he could cry once more. Just once.
“Coming into my life, forcing me to share Atsushi-kun with you, protecting my people and playing by my strategies while creating your own! Chuuya you fool! When we meet again, I'll antagonize you five times as hard as I did in this life!”
Osamu placed his head on the top of gravestone. He was shaking from emotions, but still could not cry.
“In the next life, you stupid Worm.” He whispered, resigning himself to sleep outside by Chuuya tonight. Atsushi had done it twice already, Tecchou three times. Mori laid flowers and Hirotsu-san had tea out here. Paul Verlaine, the enemy but family soulmate had made an identical hat and put it on the gravestone. “In the next life, I will find you.”
That's what soulmates are for, right?
~~~~~~~~~~
“Chuuya? Chuuyaa? Chuuuuuu–”
A poke and a brief wave of cold made Chuuya jerk awake, his ability disappearing for a split second waking him faster than a bucket of ice water could.
“I'm up, I'm up you shitty bastard.” Chuuya yawned, reaching for his coffee. “My turn now?”
Dazai nodded, flopping onto the futon Chuuya had brought once Chuuya had vacated it. “Uuuuuuuggggghhh! This is the wooooorrrsssttt! I already told Mori-sensei when these guys would try to muscle in on our turf! Why are we on a stake-out!?” He whined.
“Because your dumb ass decided you wanted to do a stake-out like in the movies.” Chuuya gleefully reminded his partner, taking care to cover his hair and watch for their targets.
“Bleeeggh. Stupid Slug. Forget that.”
“No.”
“Dumb Worm.”
“Airhead.” Chuuya shot back, before pausing as he sipped his coffee. Where did that insult come from?
“What's the matter?” Dazai asked.
“Jus’ wondering if you poisoned my coffee again is all.” Chuuya deflected.
“I wouldn't waste perfectly good coffee. It's already being wasted on you.”
“Ouch, right to the heart.” Chuuya drawled, putting the coffee down and picking up the binoculars.
“You have a good dream? You were smiling.” Dazai asked after a while.
“Dunno.” Chuuya shrugged. “Can't remember much of it.”
A hazy series of flashes.
Roots, flowers, bland then bitter seeds in his mouth.
“I just remember I was happy.”