Adapt to Live [Part 13]
Nov. 13th, 2015 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: It's been a long time since Tao had seen an angel, not since ze left Heaven and turned into a demon. Ze hadn't thought it was possible to pass through the barrier between Heaven and the physical realm without changing. M-21's task in the physical realm is to kill as many demons as they can. Except the pieces aren't fitting together.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 2,088
Total word count: 29,102
Status: Work in progress
M-21 shook their head. "They could talk to anyone They were connected to." Passing on messages weren't necessary when the Lord could talk directly with anyone They wanted to.
Tao was studying them. "Could They know what you know?"
"Of course," M-21 said, not sure why Tao had wanted to know so much after being so angry before. "They're connected with us and had access to everything we know."
Tao leaned back, hissing. "Shit. So They could know everything you do."
"Yeah," M-21 said, still not understanding. Why was that important?
"So They could know me and Boss are still alive and we still haven't found..." Tao frowned. "Uh, Boss...?"
"I wouldn't want to think that was the case," Frankenstein said, "but from what we've seen so far, that could be another reason."
"What is?" How could M-21 keep track of what Frankenstein and Tao were talking about? The two seemed to know what the other was thinking without saying it out loud.
"Crombell might not be creating angels to prove me wrong, but to stop us from finding my Lord," Frankenstein said. "If we find our Lord and then return to Heaven-"
"Then the Lord has to give up Their position to your Lord," M-21 finished. The current Lord was still an angel, so the original Lord should be able to take their position back with no complaints. Was that why the Lord had been doing this?
"And it took Them how many millennia to find a way to make an angel that didn't change when they went through the barrier?" Frankenstein muttered.
"But unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure," Frankenstein said, their voice louder, their gaze going towards the rain that was pattering on the window.
"We know it's Crombell and They've been doing some really shady stuff since we left," Tao grumbled.
"...Though I will agree about that." Frankenstein narrowed their eyes at the window. "The weather really has been erratic since we've come here."
That...was a strange change in topic.
Frankenstein turned their attention back to M-21. "Do you remember what the weather was like when you came here?"
The weather? "It was raining." It hadn't started snowing until afterwards, but watching the water fall from the sky had startled M-21 enough that they'd just watched it for a while. Especially when they had to get used to the idea of the rain falling straight through them.
"Boss...?" Tao said.
"The barrier uses a lot of magic to change an angel to a demon," Frankenstein said. "Because of that, there can be signs of someone passing through because the weather has been affected.
Tao was staring out the window as well. "Yeah... Pretty much every time I bumped into a demon here, it's been raining."
Frankenstein and Tao shared a look. "It might be good to look around," Tao said, rubbing the back of their head, flapping their wings once before folding them again. "And," they added, waving their hands as Frankenstein sent them a look, "I'll try to keep out of trouble, as always."
When Tao and Frankenstein turned away from M-21, they straightened. Wait. Were the two going to leave them behind? "Hey..."
Tao turned at their voice, then smiled. "Just stay here, kid, all right? It shouldn't take us too long-"
M-21 shook their head. "I want to come." They had to come. If another one of their batchmates had been sent over... They stood up from their chair.
"Kid, you barely know how to use that body-"
"And the best way for me to learn is by doing something." They'd learned that much while staying with Seira and Regis. They wouldn't have learned so much if they'd just watched Seira fight.
Frankenstein and Tao shared another look. Tao sighed and nodded. "Then stay in my sight, okay? Don't run off."
M-21 nodded and went to their sides. "I won't."
"And we're going to need to add shoes onto the list of the things to buy you…" Tao added.
* * *
The kid seemed fine with ill-fitting shoes, but then, they didn't have anything else to compare the feelings to. Tao had bundled them up in as many layers as ze could before the kid protested. The kid wasn't used to being wet or cold, so it was better going overboard than not.
"How did you figure out your weapon was?" the kid asked, staring at their claws. "Do I need to know what it is first before I can summon it?"
"It was the same as when I summoned my sword," Tao told them, flexing hir hand to make sure ze was ready to summon hir whip at a moment's notice. "The biggest problem for us was getting used to it." A whip needed different movements compared to a sword, needing a flick of a wrist to get it to move in a certain way, and Takeo's sword had changed into a bow. In the first fight they'd discovered their new weapons, Takeo had used it as a staff rather than trying to work out how to use the arrows.
"I don't think you have a weapon, not if you've tried and nothing happened," Tao told them. "When we were fighting Muzaka's demons, they weren't using weapons either – they were using their claws to fight. I think they were focusing their power into their hands and ripping through the air with a swipe of a hand." Tao emulated the way ze remembered the other demons fought to show the kid.
The kid continued to stare at their hands, and Tao kept a hand on their shoulder to make sure they didn't wander off by accident. But the kid didn't need hir guidance that much, keeping close, which was a good sign.
"I wouldn't point those at your face if I were you," Tao warned, keeping hir senses open, trying to sense for any disturbances. "You might take your face off."
"Ah, sorry!" They swivelled their hands so their claws pointed towards the ground.
Tao patted the kid's shoulder. "It's fine. We can go to the park or somewhere else if you want to practice." Ze could be worried about nothing, that it was just raining and it had nothing to do with the barrier and another demon hadn't been made. But it was far better to check than not.
"I thought we were looking for another-"
"Ah!" The kid blinked, and Tao breathed a chuckle, leaning a little on the kid's shoulder. "People can hear you now," Tao murmured. "Talking about demons in public is a little weird."
"Oh." The kid nodded. "All right, I won't say it again." They paused, glancing at Tao. "But what do I call them instead?"
Tao gave them a shrug that was more a stretch of their spine as they flexed their wings. "Our siblings would work." It was true.
The kid nodded again. "I thought we were looking for our sibling?"
"We are." Tao swept another glance around them and didn't see any wings or feel any use of power. "But Boss and I aren't that sure if our sibling even came through. It was just a guess."
"But if our sibling is out there..."
Tao smiled at their worried their face. "Then we'll keep looking." The kid shouldn't have to fight. Tao didn't want to the kid to fight at all.
* * *
They didn't find anything. They'd been walking for a long time and neither of M-21 or Tao had seen or sensed any demons.
The scents wafting from the restaurants and other buildings had caught M-21's attention a few times, but eventually they stopped turning their head towards the new smell, concentrating on what they needed to do.
"I think it's just a rainstorm," Tao said, giving M-21 a cup of a hot drink that M-21 hadn't been paying to while they'd kept watch. "We should have felt something by now."
M-21 nodded, letting the warmth of the drink seep into their hands. "Can we practice to see what weapon I have?"
Tao chuckled, one corner of their mouth curling up. "Can you even move your fingers?"
They flexed their fingers, the digits moving a little better now that they weren't so cold. "...Yes."
"Just." Tao brushed M-21's wing with their own. "We can try for a couple of minutes in the park if you want; it could warm us up some more before we go back home."
* * *
M-21 stared down at their claws, the sharp points poking out of their gloves. They had to focus their power into their hands and then move their hands. It was almost exactly what they did for their sword.
But that no longer worked. They'd tried that enough times already to know it didn't work. Their hand stayed empty, no matter how much they wanted it.
"Sorry, kid," Tao said, standing a little distance behind them. "I only know what Muzaka's demons did - I couldn't ask them what they did."
"It's all right." It was better than knowing nothing at all. Tao had seen the other demons slash down with their claws, so they would try that.
M-21 fisted a hand and flexed it, trying to warm up their hand enough so it would move in the way they wanted. When it was warm enough, M-21 stared at one of the trees in front of them and slashed their hand at it, in the same way Tao had shown them.
Nothing.
They breathed out, their breath misting in front of their face, trying to calm down whatever their body was doing again, their heart beating harder and making blood thrum faster through their body. Was that a good thing? They would ask Tao afterwards.
M-21 tried a second time, bringing more power to their hand, but as soon as they slashed, nothing happened, not even a small breeze disturbing the falling snow.
"It's all right," Tao said, patting their shoulder. "It takes a while to get used to."
"But I want to know how to do it now." If there was a fight, they needed to know what to do instead of flailing around.
"Demons!" someone roared and M-21 whirled around at the shout, trying to find the source. It was hard to pinpoint but -
M-21 saw themself.
They stared at the angel hovering above the snow, with their grey wings, grey hair and sword in their hand. The angel's hair was the same length as their own. M-21 had only seen their face clearly once when Tao had shown them, but the angel's face looked like what they'd seen.
What - what was going on? Were they imagining that?
"Kid... How many of you looked like you?" Tao whispered.
"None." No-one in a batch looked like each other or from other batches. That was what the Lord had made sure to do every time, that they all looked different from each other.
"Who are you?" M-21 called out to the angel, hoping they wouldn't attack straight away.
The angel drew back their sword as if they were about to charge. "I'm from the M-21 batch."
What? That - that wasn't possible. That batch didn't exist. Batches were named by letters, not by name and -
The angel disappeared.
"Move!" Tao yelled, and M-21 flitted away at the order, drawing power into their hand, but their sword and no weapon at all still didn't appear.
The angel had flitted to where M-21 and Tao had stood, the snow swirling underneath them from where they'd slashed across.
That was wrong. That wasn't something that was learned from the Lord.
That was something M-21 had learned from the physical realm. The angel shouldn't know that.
There was no time to talk. The angel disappeared again.
"Ggh!" When M-21 reappeared, Tao had flitted to where M-21 had been standing, not away, and their whip was around the angel's neck.
Tao flitted away again when the angel slashed at them, and no. It wasn't making any sense. Everything M-21 knew, everything they'd learned in the physical realm, this angel knew as well.
"You won't beat us," the angel said, glowering at both of them as they swept upright again.
"Why not, angel?" Tao said, summoning their whip to them again.
"If you do kill me-" The angel gripped their sword tighter. "-there are more of us. We won't allow you to attack Heaven!"
A batch was usually at least one-hundred individuals. If that many angels attacked at once...
Summary: It's been a long time since Tao had seen an angel, not since ze left Heaven and turned into a demon. Ze hadn't thought it was possible to pass through the barrier between Heaven and the physical realm without changing. M-21's task in the physical realm is to kill as many demons as they can. Except the pieces aren't fitting together.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 2,088
Total word count: 29,102
Status: Work in progress
M-21 shook their head. "They could talk to anyone They were connected to." Passing on messages weren't necessary when the Lord could talk directly with anyone They wanted to.
Tao was studying them. "Could They know what you know?"
"Of course," M-21 said, not sure why Tao had wanted to know so much after being so angry before. "They're connected with us and had access to everything we know."
Tao leaned back, hissing. "Shit. So They could know everything you do."
"Yeah," M-21 said, still not understanding. Why was that important?
"So They could know me and Boss are still alive and we still haven't found..." Tao frowned. "Uh, Boss...?"
"I wouldn't want to think that was the case," Frankenstein said, "but from what we've seen so far, that could be another reason."
"What is?" How could M-21 keep track of what Frankenstein and Tao were talking about? The two seemed to know what the other was thinking without saying it out loud.
"Crombell might not be creating angels to prove me wrong, but to stop us from finding my Lord," Frankenstein said. "If we find our Lord and then return to Heaven-"
"Then the Lord has to give up Their position to your Lord," M-21 finished. The current Lord was still an angel, so the original Lord should be able to take their position back with no complaints. Was that why the Lord had been doing this?
"And it took Them how many millennia to find a way to make an angel that didn't change when they went through the barrier?" Frankenstein muttered.
"But unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure," Frankenstein said, their voice louder, their gaze going towards the rain that was pattering on the window.
"We know it's Crombell and They've been doing some really shady stuff since we left," Tao grumbled.
"...Though I will agree about that." Frankenstein narrowed their eyes at the window. "The weather really has been erratic since we've come here."
That...was a strange change in topic.
Frankenstein turned their attention back to M-21. "Do you remember what the weather was like when you came here?"
The weather? "It was raining." It hadn't started snowing until afterwards, but watching the water fall from the sky had startled M-21 enough that they'd just watched it for a while. Especially when they had to get used to the idea of the rain falling straight through them.
"Boss...?" Tao said.
"The barrier uses a lot of magic to change an angel to a demon," Frankenstein said. "Because of that, there can be signs of someone passing through because the weather has been affected.
Tao was staring out the window as well. "Yeah... Pretty much every time I bumped into a demon here, it's been raining."
Frankenstein and Tao shared a look. "It might be good to look around," Tao said, rubbing the back of their head, flapping their wings once before folding them again. "And," they added, waving their hands as Frankenstein sent them a look, "I'll try to keep out of trouble, as always."
When Tao and Frankenstein turned away from M-21, they straightened. Wait. Were the two going to leave them behind? "Hey..."
Tao turned at their voice, then smiled. "Just stay here, kid, all right? It shouldn't take us too long-"
M-21 shook their head. "I want to come." They had to come. If another one of their batchmates had been sent over... They stood up from their chair.
"Kid, you barely know how to use that body-"
"And the best way for me to learn is by doing something." They'd learned that much while staying with Seira and Regis. They wouldn't have learned so much if they'd just watched Seira fight.
Frankenstein and Tao shared another look. Tao sighed and nodded. "Then stay in my sight, okay? Don't run off."
M-21 nodded and went to their sides. "I won't."
"And we're going to need to add shoes onto the list of the things to buy you…" Tao added.
The kid seemed fine with ill-fitting shoes, but then, they didn't have anything else to compare the feelings to. Tao had bundled them up in as many layers as ze could before the kid protested. The kid wasn't used to being wet or cold, so it was better going overboard than not.
"How did you figure out your weapon was?" the kid asked, staring at their claws. "Do I need to know what it is first before I can summon it?"
"It was the same as when I summoned my sword," Tao told them, flexing hir hand to make sure ze was ready to summon hir whip at a moment's notice. "The biggest problem for us was getting used to it." A whip needed different movements compared to a sword, needing a flick of a wrist to get it to move in a certain way, and Takeo's sword had changed into a bow. In the first fight they'd discovered their new weapons, Takeo had used it as a staff rather than trying to work out how to use the arrows.
"I don't think you have a weapon, not if you've tried and nothing happened," Tao told them. "When we were fighting Muzaka's demons, they weren't using weapons either – they were using their claws to fight. I think they were focusing their power into their hands and ripping through the air with a swipe of a hand." Tao emulated the way ze remembered the other demons fought to show the kid.
The kid continued to stare at their hands, and Tao kept a hand on their shoulder to make sure they didn't wander off by accident. But the kid didn't need hir guidance that much, keeping close, which was a good sign.
"I wouldn't point those at your face if I were you," Tao warned, keeping hir senses open, trying to sense for any disturbances. "You might take your face off."
"Ah, sorry!" They swivelled their hands so their claws pointed towards the ground.
Tao patted the kid's shoulder. "It's fine. We can go to the park or somewhere else if you want to practice." Ze could be worried about nothing, that it was just raining and it had nothing to do with the barrier and another demon hadn't been made. But it was far better to check than not.
"I thought we were looking for another-"
"Ah!" The kid blinked, and Tao breathed a chuckle, leaning a little on the kid's shoulder. "People can hear you now," Tao murmured. "Talking about demons in public is a little weird."
"Oh." The kid nodded. "All right, I won't say it again." They paused, glancing at Tao. "But what do I call them instead?"
Tao gave them a shrug that was more a stretch of their spine as they flexed their wings. "Our siblings would work." It was true.
The kid nodded again. "I thought we were looking for our sibling?"
"We are." Tao swept another glance around them and didn't see any wings or feel any use of power. "But Boss and I aren't that sure if our sibling even came through. It was just a guess."
"But if our sibling is out there..."
Tao smiled at their worried their face. "Then we'll keep looking." The kid shouldn't have to fight. Tao didn't want to the kid to fight at all.
They didn't find anything. They'd been walking for a long time and neither of M-21 or Tao had seen or sensed any demons.
The scents wafting from the restaurants and other buildings had caught M-21's attention a few times, but eventually they stopped turning their head towards the new smell, concentrating on what they needed to do.
"I think it's just a rainstorm," Tao said, giving M-21 a cup of a hot drink that M-21 hadn't been paying to while they'd kept watch. "We should have felt something by now."
M-21 nodded, letting the warmth of the drink seep into their hands. "Can we practice to see what weapon I have?"
Tao chuckled, one corner of their mouth curling up. "Can you even move your fingers?"
They flexed their fingers, the digits moving a little better now that they weren't so cold. "...Yes."
"Just." Tao brushed M-21's wing with their own. "We can try for a couple of minutes in the park if you want; it could warm us up some more before we go back home."
M-21 stared down at their claws, the sharp points poking out of their gloves. They had to focus their power into their hands and then move their hands. It was almost exactly what they did for their sword.
But that no longer worked. They'd tried that enough times already to know it didn't work. Their hand stayed empty, no matter how much they wanted it.
"Sorry, kid," Tao said, standing a little distance behind them. "I only know what Muzaka's demons did - I couldn't ask them what they did."
"It's all right." It was better than knowing nothing at all. Tao had seen the other demons slash down with their claws, so they would try that.
M-21 fisted a hand and flexed it, trying to warm up their hand enough so it would move in the way they wanted. When it was warm enough, M-21 stared at one of the trees in front of them and slashed their hand at it, in the same way Tao had shown them.
Nothing.
They breathed out, their breath misting in front of their face, trying to calm down whatever their body was doing again, their heart beating harder and making blood thrum faster through their body. Was that a good thing? They would ask Tao afterwards.
M-21 tried a second time, bringing more power to their hand, but as soon as they slashed, nothing happened, not even a small breeze disturbing the falling snow.
"It's all right," Tao said, patting their shoulder. "It takes a while to get used to."
"But I want to know how to do it now." If there was a fight, they needed to know what to do instead of flailing around.
"Demons!" someone roared and M-21 whirled around at the shout, trying to find the source. It was hard to pinpoint but -
M-21 saw themself.
They stared at the angel hovering above the snow, with their grey wings, grey hair and sword in their hand. The angel's hair was the same length as their own. M-21 had only seen their face clearly once when Tao had shown them, but the angel's face looked like what they'd seen.
What - what was going on? Were they imagining that?
"Kid... How many of you looked like you?" Tao whispered.
"None." No-one in a batch looked like each other or from other batches. That was what the Lord had made sure to do every time, that they all looked different from each other.
"Who are you?" M-21 called out to the angel, hoping they wouldn't attack straight away.
The angel drew back their sword as if they were about to charge. "I'm from the M-21 batch."
What? That - that wasn't possible. That batch didn't exist. Batches were named by letters, not by name and -
The angel disappeared.
"Move!" Tao yelled, and M-21 flitted away at the order, drawing power into their hand, but their sword and no weapon at all still didn't appear.
The angel had flitted to where M-21 and Tao had stood, the snow swirling underneath them from where they'd slashed across.
That was wrong. That wasn't something that was learned from the Lord.
That was something M-21 had learned from the physical realm. The angel shouldn't know that.
There was no time to talk. The angel disappeared again.
"Ggh!" When M-21 reappeared, Tao had flitted to where M-21 had been standing, not away, and their whip was around the angel's neck.
Tao flitted away again when the angel slashed at them, and no. It wasn't making any sense. Everything M-21 knew, everything they'd learned in the physical realm, this angel knew as well.
"You won't beat us," the angel said, glowering at both of them as they swept upright again.
"Why not, angel?" Tao said, summoning their whip to them again.
"If you do kill me-" The angel gripped their sword tighter. "-there are more of us. We won't allow you to attack Heaven!"
A batch was usually at least one-hundred individuals. If that many angels attacked at once...