Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ The Game ❯ The first task, a true Muramasa ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Category: Anime, Gundam Wing, Yaoi, Timeline-What-Timeline, Alternate Universe
Minor Anime: Trigun, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo
Pairings: 1x2 main
Warnings: very light shonen ai
Author: Arigatomina
Email: arigatoumina (a) hotmail . com
Website: www . geocities . com / arigatomina

The Game

Part 4: “The first task, a true Muramasa”

The black void that lay within the Random portal gave way to a springtime setting, a vibrant forest path marked by shadowing foliage and a pleasantly warm midday breeze. A few birds took flight from the branches overhead, their calls answered by kinsman deeper in the surrounding forest. Duo’s first instinct was to gape in wonder. He gave a bland comment about the ‘graphics’ in the game just as the surroundings went silent and their guide’s voice sounded from the air around them.

“The task,” Setsuna’s voice said, “is to acquire a true Muramasa for each player. Complete the task to advance.”

Heero had an idea she would break contact as soon as the message was given, so he spoke up quickly. “What is this Muramasa?”

“They are weapons of unique quality,” the guide answered, her disembodied voice laced with amusement. “One player is to head north alone, two south. The three will reconvene at a later point as the task unfolds.”

There was a soft breeze after she’d spoken, and the sounds of the forest were suddenly active again. Duo and Heero exchanged a long look. Then Heero turned to Wolfwood.

“I got it,” Wolfwood said, a wry smile pulling his lips. “You’re going to stick together and send me off to fend for myself, right? I can’t say that I’m surprised.”

Quatre’s voice spoke up from Heero’s wristband, his tone sharp and a tad reproving. “The point of a sniper is to compliment the team. The parameters of a task given by the game are not absolute. If you remain together, there’s no reason you can’t take both routes.”

“Trying to get around the rules usually makes trouble in games,” Duo commented. “I bet it’s no coincidence that the first task is to find weapons for each of us – something we’ll probably need in the tasks that follow. I really doubt they’d separate the players if it weren’t necessary for the storyline. If it’s one person going solo, versus a pair, you can be sure the pair will face the stronger challenges.”

Duo wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of sending Wolfwood off into the game alone, to face who knew what sort of problems. He had played a few games in the past, so he knew that when teams were broken into groups, the largest group always had the ‘boss’ villains to beat, while the solo missions were to strengthen individual characters. Since this was an obvious task to gain a weapon for each player, the challenges probably wouldn’t be anything Wolfwood couldn’t handle.

“He won’t be alone,” said Heero. He was careful not to look at Wolfwood, his gaze directed at the wristband he wore. “Quatre, you can follow him. I’ll switch bands with him so you can monitor his situation. Duo and I have worked as a team before, so we’re less likely to need assistance.”

Quatre’s voice was sharper than ever when he retorted, “I really don’t see the need to-“

The rest of Quatre’s sentence was cut off the moment Heero removed the band. Duo and Wolfwood stepped closer to him, staring down at it in surprise.

“Quatre?” asked Duo. “You still there?”

The silence that followed made it rather evident that he was not there. It seemed he couldn’t communicate unless the band was actively placed on a player’s person. Heero took note of that information and handed the band over to Wolfwood, exchanging it for the man’s red one. Once they’d both secured the bands, Quatre’s voice was heard again.

“I must insist that you do not remove the bands,” Quatre was saying, his tone clipped and audibly restrained. “There are places in the game where communication is impossible. At all other times you are to remain in contact with me as your interface.”

“Understood,” Heero said sharply. “We’re proceeding with the task now.”

Duo hurried to catch Wolfwood before the man could turn away from them. He sent a furtive look over his friend and was relieved to see no resentment over Heero’s having decided his role. Duo flashed a weak, apologetic smile.

“Heero did get assigned as leader,” said Duo. “But we can switch if you don’t want to go on the solo mission. I mean, you don’t have to just-“

Heero was scowling at Duo. Wolfwood noticed that and gave the longhaired boy a quick smile.

“It’s fine,” said Wolfwood. “I’m more of a loner, anyway. And as the sniper, well, hiding in the brush and keeping an eye on the team seems about right. We’ll meet up before you know it.”

Wolfwood waved a hand at Heero, not minding that the boy was still frowning at him. He wasn’t oblivious to the resentment Heero harbored him, but that wasn’t the reason he was accepting the solo role in this task. He was excited by the prospect of tackling the game on his own. And he’d known Quatre for long enough that having the boy as his ‘partner’ was a nice prospect.

Quatre lodged one final, and formal, protest against their decision. As he didn’t make it an order from the programmer, they shrugged his protest off and parted ways. Wolfwood went down the left side of the path, while Heero and Duo headed in the opposite direction.

Duo sent a number of looks behind him and didn’t speak to his partner until he could no longer spot Wolfwood, the man having taken some turn down that shadowy path. Once his friend was out of sight, he sighed and shook his head at Heero.

“Is it just me,” said Duo, “or has Quatre gotten really stiff? I know he said this game was dangerous, but I can’t remember him ever acting so…well, like you. Giving orders and being all stuffy like that…”

“It isn’t just you,” said Heero.

He didn’t elaborate on that statement, and the two of them fell into silence again. Duo occupied himself with looking over the amazingly detailed surroundings. Whatever this place was, or wherever it was, it definitely hadn’t been made by a simple computer program. He could feel the light gusts of wind that swept past the leaves overhead, carrying a vague scent of damp dirt, as if it had rained not long ago. Heero was frowning at the path itself, namely the way every step they took left an imprint in the grass.

“He must have fallen out with Trowa,” Duo murmured softly, his mind going back to the strange behavior of his friend. “The last time I saw them they’d gotten over whatever fight they had after the war. I thought for sure they were going to get together. I can’t think of any other reason Quatre would be so severe, and you know Trowa would be involved in this if they were still in contact with each other. I mean, sure, Quatre did say he hadn’t planned to involve his friends, but-“

A soft feminine groan called out ahead of them, and Duo broke off his words. There was a young woman a few yards away, curled in the higher grass that lined the path. She was flushed and making all sorts of whimpering moans, her hands fluttering over her ankle as the evident source of her discomfort. She was so busy in her little exclamations of pain that she didn't seem to notice them at all.

She had sandy blonde hair pulled back into a low tail behind her and was wearing a very loose melon-pink kimono, with a clashing greenish yellow band around her waist. Her pale breasts fairly fell out of her robe as she tossed her head in seductive agony, whimpering plaintively. Duo spotted what looked like a medicine box no more than four feet away from her. He sweatdropped with a weak grin.

“Good deeds,” Duo whispered to Heero. “Definitely a game.”

Heero raised an eyebrow and looked from Duo to the dramatically suffering woman. Then Duo directed his attention to the box sitting near her on the side of the path. Heero gave a resigned sigh and approached the strange female.

“Oh,” the young woman gasped, her eyes glittering at Heero as if he were her long lost lover. “Oh, won't you help me...? It hurts, it hurts so…!”

Duo slapped a hand over his mouth to smother his choked laugh. He’d seen better acting from prostitutes. Now this was a funny game. He stood back and let Heero pick up the medicine box. His friend didn’t say a word to the doe-eyed woman. Heero stopped two feet from her and put the box within her reach. Then he returned to Duo and caught his arm. Duo ginned as Heero marched on past the woman, dragging him along.

“Wha…?” the woman blurted, snapping her head around to stare after them. “Wait! Kind stranger-“

“Sorry, lady,” Duo called back to her with a wide grin. “We’re not doctors. Use the drugs in that medicine box. I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

“Stop talking to her,” Heero whispered, shooting a glare at Duo and jerking on the boy’s wrist. “She might follow us.”

Duo let out a light laugh and picked up his pace so he was walking next to Heero, instead of being pulled along behind him. His friend had that same look of wary distaste he'd worn back when Relena had stalked him all over Earth. Duo grinned at that memory, and slung a friendly arm over the tense boy’s shoulders.

“You know, Heero,” Duo said quietly, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure the girl wasn’t following, “we probably just messed up the game.”

Heero flinched a little and sent him a startled look. “What?”

“I bet we were supposed to take her with us,” said Duo. “That’s how games work - you help out a stranger and get a prize as your reward, some information, or a new player to join you on your quest. And as eager as she was to catch your eye, I’m betting she’s one of those ‘romantic interest’ characters. They almost never have male players without some breasty girl for him to rescue.”

“She’s useless,” Heero protested. “I’d rather have Relena here.”

“Well, yeah,” Duo grinned, “because at least Relena could talk our enemies to death.”

Heero gave a soft snort, not quite smirking at the comment. He was still confused by the concept of having to take some female character with them, especially one so clearly ‘designed’ to be a sex object. Was that supposed to help them complete the task of finding weapons? It would be a distraction, something that would slow them down and cause unnecessary irritation. He wasn’t blind. He’d seen the way she’d pursed her lips and thrust her chest out when he’d approached her with the medicine box. He’d sooner believe Duo was a saint, than he’d believe that female had a real injury.

Heero let out another snort, and Duo was surprised to see the boy wearing a small smirk. He smiled back at him, thinking he was amused at the woman’s behavior, or his teasing remark about Relena.

“I’m glad we didn’t take the girl with us,” said Duo, “but we probably should have at least talked to her. She might have told us where we’re supposed to go to find these…”

He blinked and frowned, his nose scrunching a little. “What did the guide – Setsuna – call those weapons?”

“True Muramasa,” said Heero. “As far as I know, a Muramasa is a sort of blade, a sword. But they must be particular swords, if she referred to them as ‘true.’”

Duo grimaced. “I’ve never been good with swords, not even beam sabers in Deathscythe. I always had my scythe, or a gun, bombs, you know – my own style. I hope we don’t have to use swords in the rest of the tasks.”

Heero didn’t say anything to that, mostly because he couldn’t think of any response. He was well aware of Duo’s style of fighting, particularly when he’d had his gundam to fight with. As far as he knew, Deathscythe hadn’t even been equipped with a beam saber, the standard backup weapon for mobile suits.

Duo was kicking his feet a little, probably feeling himself at a disadvantage in the game before it even really started. Heero scowled and wished he had something to say that would distract the boy. Unfortunately, distracting a person with flippant comments was more Duo’s forte. He tore his gaze away and focused on the path. It appeared to be breaking ahead of them.

They entered a clearing that was marked by a dingy wooden building with grayish brown boards, a pitched roof, and cracks wide enough to push a finger through. Whoever had built the place had long since abandoned it. Heero suspected it was now used by travelers. There was a dirt-sprinkled firing hole not far from the shed that had seen activity not too long ago, evidenced by the fresh footprints pressed into the grass around it. Duo passed him to take a peek into the shed.

“We don’t even know where to look for these Muramasas,” Duo grumbled. He didn’t find anything of interest in the shed, just a thick pile of moldy straw and more cobwebs than he cared for. The smell had him closing the door very quickly.

“If they’re swords of any quality,” said Heero, “they wouldn’t be abandoned in a place like this.”

Duo sighed in agreement. He moved over to glance on down the trail, which resumed its relatively straight course on the other side of the fifteen foot clearing. The trees were too close together to spot anything beyond them. Whatever landscape lay past the forest wouldn’t show itself for quite a while.

“I wonder if time is the same here as it is outside the game,” Duo mused. “If we’re here very long, we’ll have to find something to eat, lights so we can move around at night – assuming this place follows normal sunrise-sunset logic. It seems like earth, so it probably does.”

“We haven’t been walking for more than an hour,” said Heero. “If we pick up our pace we should be past this forest before sunset. As for any time difference, we won’t know until we meet up with Wolfwood and hear from Quatre.”

“Right,” Duo sighed. “I guess we should-“

Something flickered in the forest, a fleeting shadow over the grassy path he’d been looking down. Duo froze. He could feel the familiar sensation of being watched, but he couldn’t decide where the watcher was located. Heero noticed his wary tension and started toward him from the other side of the clearing. He made it four feet. Then something lumbered out from behind the shack.

It was a tall, strange-looking man. His face was long and jutting at the chin, his eyes dull in a way that made him appear very unintelligent. It was his bare chest that caught the eye most. His ribs were showing below wide shoulders and he had lumpy muscles along his arms. His body seemed to have been confused as to whether it should be starved and bony, or rippling with thick muscles. His head was covered with tufts of dingy brown hair, spots appearing to have been torn out at random.

The stranger was grinning at Heero with a sliver of saliva trailing from his open mouth. Duo grimaced in disgust and took a sharp step toward his partner. The man reacted by throwing a hand out in his direction, though he didn’t take his eyes off Heero.

“This doesn’t concern you, boy,” the man said in thick Japanese, his grin widening until it threatened to split the tight skin over his face. “He’s the one I’ve been looking for. You remember me…?”

Heero’s eyes narrowed and he sent a sharp look at Duo, warning him to stand down until they knew what aspect of the game the man represented. Duo gave him a reluctant nod. Heero turned his gaze back to the strange-looking man.

“Should I remember you?” asked Heero.

“You should,” the man slobbered, his eyes starting to gleam, “you should! I remember you, Demon-Eyes Kyo! I’m going to tear you apart for what you did to me. I’ve been waiting for you, so long, just for this chance. You can’t hide in that body. I can see what you are – I can see right through you!”

If Duo had been armed, he would have found the man’s gibbering speech amusing to listen to, especially with the way the stranger’s shoulders lurched upward with each word. Instead, he found it disturbing. The man took a swaggering step toward Heero. Duo was in the perfect position to see the creepy ripples that crawled beneath the taut skin on the man’s back.

Heero fell into a ready crouch and did his best to ignore the hairs that were starting to stand on the back of his neck. There was something very wrong with the man, aside from his mutated appearance. The wind had shifted toward him. Now he could smell rot and dirt, as if it were a corpse approaching him. For the first time he seriously doubted his choice to send Wolfwood off alone in this game. If the marksman were in a similar position right now, Heero was entirely to blame.

The man threw a hand out at Heero. What looked like small white spikes flew from his exposed palm. Heero dodged the missiles with a graceful roll that ended back in the same sort of ready crouch he’d started with. His gaze snapped to the weapons. He hadn’t seen the man draw anything, but they were definitely weapons, short tooth-shaped spikes that dug into the ground where Heero had been standing. The stranger let out a wet laugh and tossed more of those spikes at him. And Duo started forward silently toward the enemy’s unguarded back.

Duo might not have had a weapon, but that didn't mean he was useless. He could knock the lanky man down and snap his neck if it came to that. While he wasn't an expert like Heero, he knew more than his fair share of hand-to-hand combat. The real problem was that he'd have to touch the man in order to do it. The closer Duo moved to the stranger, the better he could see the squirming ripples pressing and twisting beneath the man's skin.

Duo was about three feet away when something exploded. The man lurched sideways as if he would fall over, paused with his weight on one leg, and slowly righted himself. He didn't take his eyes off Heero, who had jerked at the sound of the gunshot and was currently staring at the shack with eyes so wide they might easily have popped out of his head. Duo had a brief moment of untimely amusement at his partner's expression. Then he focused on the shooter. Seconds later his expression mirrored Heero's. That blonde female was standing in front of the shack with a very large and smoking handgun leveled at the stranger.

"Stop right there," she ordered, her eyes narrow and confident. "The next shot won't be a flesh wound. The head of Demon-Eyes Kyo is mine. I'll collect the reward, and you-"

"Wait your turn," the man growled, openly annoyed. "I'll eat you when I'm done."

He snapped his wrist in her direction and a series of those tooth-shaped spikes pinned her to the side of the shack. She was lucky in that they only pierced her clothing, just missing her skin. Duo flinched at this turn of events. His movement alerted the man to his proximity and earned him a place on the wall next to the girl. The difference between the two was that his clothing wasn't as baggy as hers, so he had absolutely no room to move. He could easily have died of humiliation at being dismissed as quickly as the woman.

Since he couldn't seem to pull free of the wood behind him, Duo played the role of verbal distraction. He quickly informed the freakish man that neither of them was this Kyo person, and that if they wanted to kill each other that was fine with him, just so long as they didn't involve him and Heero, because they definitely weren't going to get any reward for their heads. During his loud and obnoxious ranting the man turned toward him with a somewhat confused look. Heero used the opening to his advantage. He knocked the stranger down with one swift blow to the back of the neck.

The woman gasped beside him, and Duo almost rolled his eyes. Had she really thought she could take Heero down with a simple handgun? She obviously had no idea who she was up against, and neither did that weird-

Duo didn't finish his thought. Heero had no more than pulled back from his successful hit, than the man rolled over and swiped something sharp and long at him. The dark-haired boy just managed to avoid getting his throat sliced open.

That scent Heero had detected was overwhelming him. Now he could see why.

The man's face had split along the center, the skin peeling back so his mutated head could emerge in noxious detail. His mouth was a ring of fangs on a burnt brown background, a writhing tongue that resembled nothing so much as a proboscis protruding from within. His eyes remained the same glossy yellow, but they were bulbous and barely held in liquid red sockets. The worst was the skin. As it curled toward the man's back, bony spikes and vine-like tentacles squirmed free to surround him, each one writhing with a life of its own.

The woman began to scream beside him, but Duo barely heard her. His breath caught in his throat and congealed there, the stench choking him as much as his sudden fear for Heero's safety. He clenched his fists and pulled against the spikes at the same time as he pressed his legs tight against the wood. The shack had looked flimsy. Now was a good time to find out how flimsy it was.

The creature, which no longer resembled a man at all, lunged forward with those sharp bony blades arced over its shoulders and the tentacles spread wide to catch his prey. Heero almost froze in his tracks, his mind flying for a method to combat the thing. The only direction he could move was straight back. If he dodged to either side those tentacles would get him, and remaining in place would put him within the monster's outstretched claws and right in line with those blades. He jumped back and then darted to the side, being careful to stay just outside the creature's reach.

Clomps of dirt and grass littered the air as the monster plowed into the ground where Heero had been standing. It pulled free and whipped around, those tentacles on its back already orienting on Heero's new location. Heero dodged again, edging closer to the forest. His best chance was to get out of the open. The monster wasn't that fast, but with its extended reach, he didn't have any room to look for a weak point in its defense. He was a few feet from the trees when he realized someone was behind him.

"Kyo-san! Use this!"

Heero whirled, fully expecting to see yet another enemy. He barely reacted in time to catch the sword that had been tossed at him. An electrical current shot up his arm the second his fingers closed over the hilt. Heero didn't pause to wonder at that strange sensation. The monster was closing in on him fast. He pulled the sword free and ducked down and forward.

Tentacles wrapped tight around his arms, from wrist to shoulder, more circling his neck, and one of those blades came down inches from his face. Heero grimaced and shoved his arm forward, driving the sword deeper into the thing's midsection. He was rewarded with a gush of putrid green sludge from that dripping mouth. His eyes closed against it even as he ripped the sword to the side, slicing the creature almost entirely in half. For a long moment those tentacles tightened around him. Then they slipped away as the monster slumped in a steaming heap on the grass.

Heero scrubbed an arm over his eyes, where splatters of that sludge had struck his face. When he opened his eyes again, he could see the creature dissolving in an odious cloud of green vapor. He stepped away with the dripping sword still in his hand. His logical mind was processing the events as some creative aspect of a fantasy game, but his body was telling him the physical danger was very real. He swiped the sword through the air to knock off some of the thick liquid that coated it. The blade had begun to smoke as if the sludge were some corrosive acid. That done, he was torn between finding the person who’d thrown the weapon – possibly an enemy – and freeing Duo before some other disguised creature could attack them.

Having determined it was best to focus on the potential threat of the person who’d given him the weapon, he turned toward the forest. A tingling wave of electricity in his arm stopped him. His eyes snapped down only to narrow abruptly. The blade of the sword, now clean of that greenish slime, was glowing with a blinding white light, the heat of which resonated up his arm until it fairly throbbed inside his skull. As he stared at it, the blade thickened and reshaped itself into a very familiar, if miniaturized, shape. It had turned into a three-foot long replica of Wing Zero’s beam cannon.

“What is this?” the woman cried out, her voice sharp enough to startle Heero. “What kind of creature was that? Someone get me down!”

The last bit was stated after a quick glare at Duo. Duo returned the scowl, not liking the woman’s accusatory tone. She’d planned to attack them, hadn’t she? Thanks to her, he was stuck pinned to a wall like some insect on display, instead of down where he could check out Heero’s new weapon. He didn’t have to ask to know Heero had just acquired their first ‘true’ Muramasa.

Something flickered in front of Duo and resolved itself into the figure of a small silver-haired boy. He had wide cat-shaped amber eyes, and was dressed in a pale bluish-white robe with matching shorts. A long sword, almost as tall as him, was strapped to his back. He didn’t speak as he reached up to remove the spikes holding Duo’s wrists in place. He moved to the young woman next, ignoring her startled warning for him to stay away from her. It seemed she hadn’t meant him when she’d yelled for someone to free her.

With his hands loose, Duo made short work of the rest of his bindings. Those spikes felt like ivory tusks, but they were textured in a spiral pattern that made twisting them the best way to pull them free of the wood. That explained why he’d had such trouble trying to force them straight out. They were more like conical screws than actual spikes.

Duo didn’t pause to stare at the strange boy, who didn’t seem interested in attacking him, or looking at him, for that matter. He ran over to Heero so he could investigate the sword-turned-cannon. He was quick to offer his opinion of the fight – it had been rigged from the start, with no way Heero could have defeated the monster on his own. It had been an obvious ploy to put Heero in danger so that someone would give him the necessary weapon.

Heero agreed with Duo’s summation. His attention was now focused on the person in question, who’d so conveniently been there to throw the sword to him. This individual stepped out of the shadows of the forest with a confused, but not unfriendly frown.

He had straight black hair that fell just past his shoulders and curled up at the edges, making a stark contrast to his yellow collar. His outfit was a pale yellow jacket with darker yellow and red markings, the tails ending just past his hips, and loose white pants. He was wearing the same sort of sandals as the boy, and had a sword on his left hip. Tall and slender, he had an effeminate face with dark lashes outlining his midnight blue eyes.

“This isn’t right,” he stated, his head tilting to the side as he looked at Heero. His voice was a soft tenor, with a somewhat whimsical tone. “You’re not Kyo, or Kyoshiro, for that matter. How is it the Muramasa recognized you as its owner?”

“You mean this?” asked Heero, lifting the cannon. The man nodded in response, and Heero shook his head. “If it’s a true Muramasa, it’s what I’ve been looking for.”

“You and anyone else with an eye for craftsmanship,” the stranger smirked. “That doesn’t tell me how it is that the sword chose you as its master. That was Kyo’s sword. He should have been here, not you. That demon has been stalking Kyo for days now, along with the girl.”

He turned to flash a smile at the young woman, who’d eased close enough to eavesdrop on them. She jumped with a faint blush and a quick scowl. Then he directed his gaze back to Heero.

“Has Kyo jumped bodies again?”

Heero and Duo glanced at each other, both wondering about the ‘rules’ of the game. They hadn’t been told anything about the ‘worlds’ they’d go to, or the people they might encounter. If Heero had taken the place of someone as a part of the game, then the game characters shouldn’t have noticed the difference.

“We don’t know anything about this Kyo,” Duo said, in somewhat rusty Japanese. “We were on a…mission of sorts, looking for two weapons like that one, when that monster attacked us.”

The woman rushed over to stand between Duo and the swordsman, her eyes wide and almost outraged. “Are you saying Demon Eyes Kyo isn’t here? That I sat there all day, waiting for him to walk by, for nothing?”

“Seems like it,” said Duo.

“I don’t believe this!” She threw her hands up and let out a frustrated cry. Then she pulled at her robe and rooted around inside till she came up with a wrinkled stack of fliers. She rifled through them, shooting looks from each sheet, to Heero and Duo. After a few minutes she stuffed the papers back in her kimono and turned on her heel. “What a waste of time! They don’t even have warrants…!”

Duo raised an eyebrow and watched the woman stalk over to the shack. She retrieved her oversized handgun and disappeared down the path without a backward glance. Duo turned back to the stranger with a questioning look.

“A bounty hunter,” the man smiled. “She’s lucky she ran into the two of you, rather than Kyo.”

“About that,” said Heero. “You said this weapon belonged to a person named Kyo? Did it have this shape when he used it?”

“A true Muramasa is said to take the form best suited to its chosen master. When Kyo handled that blade, it was a blade – he was a swordsman. I’ve never seen one take the form of a gun, certainly not such an unusual one. I don’t suppose you’d care to demonstrate its power…?”

Heero frowned at the hopeful expression on the man’s face, something about those glittering eyes making him suspicious. He shot a glance at Duo and wasn’t surprised to see his partner wearing a similar look of curious interest. With a sharp look at the smiling stranger, Heero lifted his arm and aimed the cannon at the forest to his right.

That tingling, almost heated electric sensation started in his arm when he placed his finger around the trigger. He could see that white energy glowing along the edges of the beam cannon, as if it were charging itself the same way it would have if it were used by a mobile suit. The difference was that Heero felt as if he were the source of that energy – he had a strange thought that he could kill himself by using the weapon too often. He pressed the thought back into a corner of his mind, to be explored in detail at a later time.

The cannon shook in his hand, visible energy coalescing at the tip in a fiery ball. It fired a narrow beam of white-hot energy that exploded against a nearby tree. Heero belatedly wondered if he would cause a fire. But the tree incinerated so quickly it was reduced to ash without any true flame building to catch the surrounding forest. The test told him that if he were to hold the trigger, rather than firing a quick shot, he could have a sustained beam the same way he’d had with Wing Zero.

It was definitely a weapon molded to suit him in particular. Heero found it very interesting, and just as suspicious. How could the game know that about him? Had it been programmed with his personal history?

“Sugoi!” the black-haired man exclaimed.

Duo echoed that sentiment with a wide smile. He couldn’t fail to notice the slight twitch of smugness that flashed over Heero’s face. His partner crossed to where he’d dropped the hilt earlier and took the belt to use as a sort of sling around his back, where he hooked the cannon to hang comfortably. He clearly had no intention of returning the weapon to the stranger. He said as much when he resumed his spot next to Duo.

“No, no,” the stranger smiled, waving a dismissive hand at Heero. “It’s yours now. You’ve taken Kyo’s place as its owner. I was merely holding it for him – now you. I couldn’t have used it myself.”

“Do you know where another Muramasa is located?” asked Duo. Now that he’d seen Heero’s ‘game-provided weapon’ he was eager to find his own.

Dark blue eyes gave Duo an appraising look. “Perhaps. Are you familiar with Sanada Yukimura, by chance?”

Duo and Heero both shook their heads, and the stranger’s smile returned twice as bright.

“I’m surprised,” the man admitted. “You two must hail from some place quite distant. I’m Yukimura. The reason I asked if you were familiar with my name is because of a tournament that’s taking place soon. Most of the neighboring clans will be there. The prize…is a secret treasure. If my guess is correct, it’s a true Muramasa.”

“I knew it!” Duo grinned. His outburst surprised Yukimura, but he didn’t mind. He shot an excited look at Heero. “That has to be my weapon. So all we have to do is win this tournament. Between the two of us, we should be able to do that easily. And I bet there won’t be any more attacks between now and then – if that’s the next ‘challenge’ for us.”

“Where is this tournament being held?” asked Heero.

Yukimura blinked rapidly and leaned away from the pair. “You must realize the strongest samurai and shinobi will be competing in the tournament. And even if one of you were to win, that’s no guarantee the Muramasa would accept you as its master.”

“It’ll accept me,” Duo said confidently. “As for the challengers, well, I’m sure we’ll manage to hold our own. This is Heero, by the way. I’m Duo.”

“Very interesting to meet you,” Yukimura smiled. “I was planning to dally a while, but since Kyo is conspicuously missing at the moment, I can show you the way.”

They followed him toward the northern path. That silver-haired boy was leaning against a tree when they entered the woods. Heero was surprised to see him since he’d been distracted earlier. The boy, who Yukimura fondly introduced as Sarutobi Sasuke, gave them a bored look and fell into step beside the taller man. He didn’t offer any greetings, and was silent while Yukimura explained more about the tournament.

The person who’d organized the tournament was the head of the clan currently holding control as the strongest in the region. He’d invited his rivals, enemies, and allies, all to try their strength in a controlled set of matches. It was a way to test each other without having to start a new war. They’d only recently begun to recover from the last conflict.

Heero followed Yukimura’s descriptions with a pronounced frown. There was something vaguely familiar about the names of the rival clans, along with the obvious Japanese names for the places involved. He suspected this part of the game was based on a real time in Japanese history on Earth, possibly using the actual names of real people who’d taken part in the bloodshed. The addition of monsters and magical weapons made the realm appear more fantasy than anything, but it could have been based on a true setting. The game had simply added on to create ‘tasks’ for the players, and challenges that couldn’t be found in the real world.

He considered telling Yukimura about the game to see if the ‘character’ had any programmed response. Heero would have done just that, if they hadn’t been so close to completing the task. Chances were, he’d either drive away their guide – with the man thinking them crazy – or he’d break some unstated rule and get the entire task ‘reset’. He reminded himself to ask Duo about that later since he was more familiar with games.

As Heero had predicted, the forest thinned just as the sun began to sink. Yukimura was quick to warn them that traveling at night was dangerous, and tiresome, besides. They stopped at an inn in a small village just as the sky went black and stars started to peek down at them.

Duo had wondered about the occupants of the village, a quiet dirt lane with small shuttered buildings seemingly devoid of life. He had to assume the ‘dangers’ at night were monsters, or bandits, and that the people living in the town retired early to avoid them. Considering it was a game, he was sure the real story behind the empty streets was just that the ‘program’ hadn’t made any excess characters for them to run into. He kept that thought to himself, not wanting to ruin the fun of this otherwise realistic world.

Yukimura set them up at the inn, not seeming surprised or bothered to hear they had no money on them. He settled himself on the open porch with a jug of sake and encouraged them to relax in the hotsprings that were attached to the inn. Yukimura's teasing comment about how Heero smelled like a sour corpse was enough to send Duo dragging his stubborn partner outside. The scent was rather foul, though it hadn’t been noticeable until they’d stood inside within a close proximity of the Japanese boy.

Since he'd never been to a hotspring during his time on Earth, Duo was surprised to find it really was a spring. Set behind the inn, the naturally heated pool of water was lined with smooth stones, wisps of steam rising off into the open night sky. There were bushes and trees planted around it to provide privacy, and thick robes and towels for those who chose not to bathe in the nude. Duo almost took advantage of the latter items. He didn't want Heero to think he was self conscious, but he was very aware that they'd never actually seen each other without some sort of clothing on. They weren't that sort of partners.

If Heero suffered the same reservations as Duo, he hid them well. He undressed methodically in the room adjoining the spring and took up one of the thick wraps. This he left near the edge of the pool, within reach for when he emerged again.

Duo hurried to put on a similar display of disinterest. His face was still warm from having watched Heero strip right in front of him, but the boy hadn't glanced over to see the blush. He was grateful for that much. As often as he'd admitted to himself that Heero was very good looking, he hadn't quite reached the point where he could actually think that without at least a faint flush rising to his cheeks. It was just that...this was Heero! Being attracted to his partner was embarrassing and a little pathetic, really. Duo might have hoped after a year of not seeing the boy, he'd get over that youthful crush of his. Obviously, that wasn't the case. Heero still looked every bit as...well-toned...as he had when Duo had first spotted him in skin-tight spandex. Now there was a thought he really didn't need to be thinking...

Shaking his head with a grin, Duo did his best to laugh off his embarrassment. He managed to put a confident swagger into his steps. The false bravado worked so well that he didn't even hesitate when he discarded his wrap to join Heero in that rather intimate pool. He was so deep in putting on a show of confidence that he didn't notice his friend had dropped his eyes with a terse frown.

Heero was surprised at himself. He hadn't thought twice about the idea of sharing the hotsprings with Duo. He knew for a fact that people did such things on a regular basis back on Earth, at least in Japan. But the moment Duo had followed him outside with nothing but that pale towel wrapped around his hips, Heero had been struck very uncomfortable. He'd had to literally lower his head to keep from watching Duo remove the wrap, and he found that disturbing. It was true that he'd never seen Duo naked. The closest he'd come was during the war, when he'd wrapped some of Duo's injuries and spent a day or so with the boy wearing little more than a long shirt. Curiosity alone might have accounted for his errant eyes. But curiosity was no excuse to violate Duo's privacy. The fact that he'd been so tempted to look made him feel distinctly guilty, and...surprised. Sex simply wasn’t something he’d spent any amount of time considering.

Eager to reclaim that comfortable ease he normally felt in the company of his partner, Heero launched into a discussion of The Game.

They wondered at the monster they’d encountered, the details of which Duo assured him were more fitting with the horror genre of games, than with fantasy. The samurai connection was obvious, along with the striking familiarity of the ‘clan-based’ conflicts Yukimura had referred to. This realm, then, chosen at random, seemed to be a mix of historic-based samurai conflict, a dash of horror, and a good grounding in magic as far as the weapons were concerned. The issue that immediately arose was their place, or role, in this realm.

Duo was of the opinion that the game had a set storyline - one that played out naturally no matter what sort of player entered. There would be slight variations, depending on how the player interacted with the characters, but the story itself was based around the task, and all the supporting characters played a role in forwarding the player to complete that task. The question of whether the task would be ‘reset’ was something, according to Duo, that only Heero would consider. He was confident that the game would remain closely locked in its original storyline no matter what they said to the characters. His experience with role-playing games told him that game characters could only venture so far from their scripted responses before they’d simply disregard strange comments made by the players.

Heero knew Duo was more familiar with games in general, but he retained his skepticism regarding possible unspoken rules. He was quick to remind his partner that this game, while sharing similarities with the role playing games Duo referred to, had an unknown origin. Who was to say the creator of the game followed the same logic found in typical video games? Quatre’s disturbing speculation that the game could be of ‘alien’ origin remained at the front of his mind. He simply couldn’t dismiss the idea as confidently as Duo had.

“I’m not saying,” said Heero, “that the creators of this game were some alien beings. What I mean is that their way of thinking could be so foreign that they appear alien. Quatre’s comments can’t be taken at face value. I’m convinced he knows more than he’s told us. His use of the world alien should be taken as a warning not to judge the game the same way you would a normal one.”

“But that’s the thing,” Duo sighed. “Quatre would know even less about games than I do. I know for a fact that he never played games before becoming a pilot. I really doubt he’d have suddenly learned all about them in the last year. I’d know more about them than he would, and I’ve only played a handful.”

Heero was surprised by this, considering the confident way Duo spoke of games in general, and his knowledge of the various genres and stereotypes. Duo's immediate identification of that woman’s role in the game served as proof of his experience.

“I’ve read about them,” said Duo. “And you know, I’d snag one every once in a while. They’re pretty easy to predict when you’ve played a few. Although...I never really had time to finish any of the long ones. Too time consuming.”

“I never thought about them at all,” Heero admitted. “I knew they existed, but...”

Duo gave a wry smile. “You know that doesn’t surprise me. I saw my first game at a cross-shop on L2, one of those really old arcade machines that charge you to push buttons and make these blocky little guys punch and kick each other to death. I didn’t know they’d evolved to include actual stories till I came to Earth. And then it wasn’t like I had time to just sit around and play for hours on end. I think the furthest I ever got in a game was at that boarding school, and there I had you making me shut it off so I wouldn’t oversleep and miss my classes.”

There was a hint of reproach in the boy’s playful comment. Heero accepted it with a calm nod. “I couldn’t see the point in it. I still don’t.”

“It’s escapism,” said Duo, with a fond smile for his somewhat alienated friend. “It’s the same reason Trowa and Quatre would get those little smiles when they played music together. We all missed our childhoods. For me, I never forgot how I used to watch people play that arcade machine and wish I had that luxury. A few hours spent on one of those fantasy games was like getting a year of my life back.”

Heero had never spent time around people his own age, not until he’d met his fellow pilots on Earth. By then, he’d become acclimated to adult behavior. The only escape method he could think of having participated in was a few stolen passages from the books in Relena’s library, during his brief stay in the Sanq Kingdom. And even then, he’d rarely had more than a few minutes to read before being interrupted by someone eager to remind him of the war and his responsibilities.

“You never seemed to need an escape method,” said Heero. “If you had any regrets, you didn’t show it. I assumed the reason you were so...consistently happy...was to make up for not having a normal life. I don’t remember you ever dropping your positive nature.”

“Not if I could help it,” said Duo. “But you know most of that was a front, right? If you can’t find a way to escape and forget, you have to cope however you can. I never liked being alone, before the war, or during it.”

He flashed Heero a wistful smile. While he didn’t really like to talk about himself, it was nice to see how interested his friend was. And he reminded himself that not only had Heero spent the last year alone, he’d actually felt the loneliness that came with isolation. If someone had asked him a year ago whether or not Heero felt loneliness, he’d have laughed outright. Now he knew better, and the realization made it easier for him to admit his own doubts.

“I wasn’t like you,” Duo explained gently. “I didn’t have that calm confidence to be...self-contained. You preferred to fight alone so you wouldn’t have anyone slowing you down. Me, I saw fighting alone as part of my curse, not my choice.”

Heero wanted to protest the idea that he’d enjoyed fighting by himself, but he knew he couldn’t do it with any honesty. He’d seen his as a mission that only he could accomplish. He’d chosen to fight alone too many times to deny it. There had even been a time, before getting to know his fellow pilots, when he’d taken a certain satisfaction in his own expertise. Looking back, he wanted to, and did, wince at some of his post-battle reactions; laughing at how easily he’d slain his would-be enemies, smugly surveying his handiwork, and behaving in a manner that was, in retrospect, almost maniacal. But since he’d been alone at the time, no one had been there to give him an outsider’s perspective. It had taken time for him to realize he was using the battles as an outlet for his own problems. Interacting with Duo and the others had changed him in more ways than they knew.

“It was better that way,” Heero said slowly, “fighting my own battles. So long as I had a clear goal in sight, choosing the best method was easy. I didn’t think because there was no time to think, and no reason to - I knew my mind and so long as there was no one there to question my decisions, I had no doubt to hinder me. Now...”

He dropped his eyes with a pained frown. While he had come to admit his mistakes, at least to himself, he didn’t partake in regrets. He’d suffered more than enough regrets following the war, during that long year of peace and reflection.

“Now,” Heero said slowly, “I wonder if things wouldn’t have been easier if I’d worked more with the rest of you.”

Duo could happily have hugged the boy. Of the five of them, Heero and Wufei had been the most distant, the ones who’d resisted friendship and teamwork as stubbornly as possible. For Heero to regret having been so distant was a major victory in Duo’s mind. There had been more than a few instances where he’d wondered if Heero weren’t right in trying to fight the war himself, without making friends who could easily be lost in the conflict. Only his decidedly stubborn decision to remain positive had kept him from giving in to those doubts. He’d convinced himself the reason Heero had so much initial trouble working with a partner was because he had no experience. Now he felt vindicated, and closer to his friend than ever before.

Not wanting to push what he saw as something of a breakthrough, Duo flashed his friend a warm smile. “If you think about it, you have a chance to really get used to teamwork now. I mean, we did pretty well when Relena was kidnapped, but this time there’s no real penalty if you relax. It’s not like the world will end if we screw up in the game. You can actually hang out, enjoy yourself a little. I’m still convinced friends make the best partners.”

“I take it a friend wouldn’t have used his partner as a distraction so he could make his own escape,” Heero said slowly, with a faint smirk.

Duo waved a hand at that, his expression lofty and dismissive. “That was back when you thought fighting alone was the classy way to go. Now that you’re on my side, we can work on loosening you up a bit. Games like this always allow time for the characters to interact and work out their differences. It’s just like I said, partners work together better that way.”

“I considered us friends despite our differences,” said Heero. “Maybe even because of them. As partners, we countered each other. We still do.”

It was given in such a soft voice that Duo stared in surprise. Heero met his gaze for a brief moment before looking away. Duo dropped his eyes just as quickly. Part of him wanted to laugh it off and reassure Heero that of course they were friends, and that they’d definitely balanced each other out as partners. Numerous jokes sprang to mind, ways to break the suddenly oppressive silence. He didn’t use any of them.

After a short time had passed, Heero offered a comment about how late it was, and the unknowns they’d face in the morning. His tone gave the impression that he’d only been silent because he was tired, natural enough considering the day they’d had. Duo returned the sentiment with interest and even managed to muster a bright smile for his overly sober partner. Their exit from the spring was less awkward than their entrance had been, each making it a point not to so much as glance at the other until they were clothed in the comfortable robes provided by the inn. They retired for the evening in companionable, if not quite easy silence.

.-.
TBC