SD Gundam Fan Fiction ❯ Heart to Heart ❯ Shute/Bakunetumaru- Relate ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

 

 

“Zero? Have you seen Bakunetsumaru? I can't find him anywhere, and supper's almost ready.”

 

Shute was at the end of his rope. It was any kid's dream come true, to have three friends like he had. Even if things weren't totally perfect, it was probably the coolest thing that had ever happened to him. He was part of a secret line of fortifications against what felt like some kind of incredible SciFi television evil.

 

However, it he was at ends with it all the same. All of them had their differences, and the clashed profoundly sometimes. But that wasn't what was bothering him. Yes, there still were dents to beat out and wrinkles to iron away, but what was beginning to get to him wasn't at all something like that.

 

All of it, it was real. He had never seen much of real fighting before. Weapons were outlawed in Neotopia. But he had seen how terrible they could be now. It only consoled him that there were people -him-, that existed to take the bullets instead of the populous. War is not something for children. Yet here he was.

 

The same with his new friends. This was no fantasy story. Of course they wouldn't get along to begin with. They all had their own stories to worry about, and while he couldn't really guess what horrible things they had seen he could take a shot at their seriousness.

 

But for the time being, their quartet was cut down to a twosome, as Captain was away at base. Shute was looking for the newest addition, the samurai gundam from the land of Ark. He didn't seem to be anywhere- and from what little the boy knew, Bakunetsumaru was not one to neglect his stomach. It was dinnertime; where was he?

 

“My apologies, I don't know.” Zero said, shrugging. “Perhaps he is off training? He may have lost track of the hour.”

 

Shute frowned. “Oh.” If Zero didn't know (And by his reckoning, the flying gundam saw nearly everything), then maybe he should just start waiting. He would come back sometime, right?

 

Right?

 

The boy had never been a pessimist, but he couldn't help a somber thought. The first day, the samurai had been restless. The second, a little curious and a bit overwhelmed. The third and present days, he had seemed very pensive and faraway, as if he had too much to think about. Maybe he had gone after the Dark Axis by himself, leaving them?

 

“I'm going to go look for him.” Shute said to the Winged Knight. “Could you stay here and tell mom if she comes looking for me? I could be late for dinner, I dunno.”

 

“Certainly.” Zero nodded. “If I see him, I can find you. It shouldn't be hard to find him… follow the trail of hot air from his unhinged jaw?”

 

Zero really wasn't too compatible with Bakunetsumaru. It didn't take a kid to tell that. When the knight was trying to be civil, he referred to Baku as `strong-willed', and their relationship `a merry war'. When he wasn't particularly polite, it was `pigheaded' and `attack upon his pride'. Whichever suited him at the time.

 

“Really?” Shute asked. Even a small step in the right direction was a good one. “Thanks! I'll be back soon!”

 

The boy ran off to get his rollerblades, hastening in pursuit.

 

-@-

 

Wheels in leaf litter wasn't a very pretty sound, Shute thought as he swept the woods behind his house. After thinking a second, that place seemed to be the only place the runaway gundam could have escaped to without anyone seeing him. He had already asked all the neighbors and even the police on duty at the time. Because all of that turned up nothing, it was probably safe to say he had taken the only way no one happened to be watching: the forest.

 

While thankful that he had designed his footwear to operate in all terrain (although hills were a pain from time to time), the noise it made wasn't particularly pretty. But that didn't matter, really. What he was really paying attention to was the ground. Gundams were heavy, and even in springy underbrush the made some kind of trail. He was looking for tracks, crushed branches, anything.

 

He was getting hungry. It was past suppertime, and he hadn't eaten a thing. He had even brought a little light to see by when it got dark, but Shute really hoped he wouldn't need it. Mom would be furious if he was caught wandering the woods after nightfall, he thought.

 

Breathing a little quickly, he came upon a small clearing, overlooking a sheer hill. He used to come here to test things and do homework sometimes. He really had never been around about twilight, though. He had never noticed it before but the hilltop clearing was actually pretty picturesque. Even the lonely boulders where the earth's bones poked out of the ground were somewhat pretty.

 

In order to ascend the hill, Shute took off his skates. There was one more rock than usual, he thought. It looked suspicious, so he decided to check it out. Soon he found that the extra `rock' was not stone at all but a motionless Bakunetsumaru, gazing off into the distance. His eyes were trained on the reddening sky, as if waiting for something.

 

“I've been all over, Baku!” Shute gasped, leaning on a rock from the steep climb. “Why didn't you come back?”

 

The musha said nothing, gaze falling on the horizon as if no one had spoken.

 

“Uh, hello?” Shute blinked, but then frowned. Maybe the guy was having a quiet moment. But he looked sad. That was never a good thing, being melancholy. “Oh. You wanted to be alone, didn't you?”

 

Once again, Bakunetsumaru was silent. Shute gathered his courage. He couldn't let his new friend waste away here!

 

“What's wrong?” the boy asked, hopping up on the same rock, looking out on the same horizon. “Something's bugging you.”

 

“It's nothing.” Bakunetsumaru said, sounding a little unlike himself. “You wouldn't understand it.”

 

Shute frowned and decided to try again. “Maybe, but it's better than acting like some kinda' clam, sitting here all by yourself.”

 

“I'm not a clam.” Bakunetsumaru protested, arms crossing stubbornly.

 

The boy only sniggered now. “That's better. That's the Baku I know.”

 

Bakunetsumaru shook his head, mock defeat ringing in his eyes and bitter sarcasm seeping from his tone. “I can't win against you, can I? Defeated by a squishy human, my honor weeps tonight.”

 

“Squishy and proud!” Shute giggled and stretched his face into something silly. “Nyah!”

 

The samurai couldn't hold back laughter at that one. Especially because it only humored what the boy was trying to glorify “Ha! If my people could make that face, the Kibao hoard would run for the sea!”

 

“It's about your home, isn't it?” Shute asked quietly. “You can't get back to it anymore.”

 

At once, the samurai closed up again, looking just as lost in thought as when Shute encountered him. But it didn't last. “It's just so different.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“This world, it's nothing like my own. There are few warriors of honor. But there is peace. My way, it's been taken from me…”

 

The last words hung lamely, as if he at the last minute wanted to take them back. He looked a little angry with himself, Shute noticed. The boy thought for a second, and then opened his mouth.

 

“You're right. I don't know what you mean.” Shute said sadly, but then tried to meet the gundam's eyes with a hopeful look. “But I can accept it, y'know.”

 

“What?”

 

Shute looked kinda sheepish, feeling like he was trying to force a yak out through his throat. “You're one of those guys who has to prove something by fighting. I don't know anyone else who's like that. I can't even relate to it.” Shute said, but smiled at the end. “But I don't think there's anything wrong with somebody else living like that.”

 

Bakunetsumaru would have gaped, if he had a real mouth. But he simply nodded, still gazing off into the distance, as Shute was. No words were needed from him.

 

“I've been thinking too.” Shute said, “About all this fighting and stuff. About all the worlds there prolly' are.”

 

The moment was not lost. “Have you now?”

 

“Yeah. It's just like you, kinda.” Shute said. “My world's been taken away from me, too.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Shute looked a bit upset, but kept a hopeful face. “A week ago I didn't even think about war. I didn't really have to worry about guns and fighting and bad people. But now everything just looks… I dunno… different.”

 

Bakunetsumaru gave a sound of agreement. He could see where the boy was going.

 

“It's like this is a whole different Neotopia.” Shute said, frowning. “Just people don't see it yet. And when people do, it's gonna be really, really bad. I don't know what to do.”

 

“You don't?” Bakunetsumaru inquired honestly. He had never seen Shute be so worried. “No one has a plan?”

 

Shute shook his head. “Nope. And I don't think I can do anything about it. I mean, I'm just a kid.”

 

The redness of twilight had not yet reached its apex, the cold stone around them a dull bath of orange and ruby. It was in this that Bakunetsumaru found an answer.

 

“If my way does not exist in this world, I'll have to teach it to you.” the musha answered, completely meeting Shute's gaze for the first time in a day. “And the first lesson, you must move forward. You always can do something.”

 

“You think so?”

 

Baku simply gave what passed as a gundam smile. “I'm a samurai of Ark. And a doubtful samurai is a dead samurai. As are you, Shute.”

 

“What?”

 

“We'll move forward together, little warrior. And maybe we'll find a home again.” said Bakunetsumaru. “No doubts. Just movement.”

 

“Little warrior?”

 

“You fight alongside your brothers-at-arms against a foe of unknown size, with lack of plan, lack of knowledge… but you are steadfast anyway.” The gundam clarified. “Maybe Ark is not so far-away as I thought.”

 

A gigantic hungry rumble, the sound of one's stomach demanding satisfaction, pierced the scene. Shute turned a new shade of purple.

 

“It's suppertime, you know.”

 

At those words, the samurai hopped up in alarm. “Really? I'm starving!”

 

“Let's get home, Baku.”

 

-SHUTEBAKUSHUTEBAKUSHUTEBAKUSHUTEBAKUSHUTEBAKUSHUTEBAKU-