Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Red Shaman ❯ Ties That Bind ( Chapter 17 )

 

“Are you certain that it's him, Edana?” Farf asked while sitting on the floor of the training room. They had been sparring for over four hours and both were a bit winded. Added to the destruction of the training room equipment were scorch marks on the floor and walls along with dripping shards of ice from where they had been firing magickal rounds at one another.

 

“Unfortunately, yes. He made certain I knew it was him,” she said, putting her head in her hands and trying to fight off feeling sick.

 

“Then I believe Fen is right. This is no longer the man you and I once knew. For one, he would never harm a child. For another, he would know how much this would hurt you. How do you plan to go about this? It's obvious he wants to die completely. That must be the reason he made sure you found out about these things. No one else would have the power to annihilate him utterly. Were it anyone else it would already be done. You wouldn't have bothered to send the teams in. You would have hunted anyone else yourself and destroyed them without a second thought.”

 

“That's probably true. I just don't understand why he suddenly wants to die completely.”

 

“Not everyone has your strength. I doubt if even I would want to survive if I had to live for so many centuries without any kind of a break. Though I am always happy to come back to you.”

 

She smiled at him. “We always did make a good team.”

 

“Yes. We always have. Speaking of teams. What do you intend to do about the younger ones? Will you reactivate their full memories as well?”

 

“Not unless I absolutely have to.”

 

“You may have to sooner than you'd wish. The dreams are starting.”

 

“Already? Why didn't Ghost tell me about this?”

 

“Because they don't really remember them in the daylight. The dreams fade and leave them with only a lingering unease. I only know this from hearing Ghost comforting either Nagi or Bombay in the night,” his lips twitched a bit. “I take it by your lack of reaction that you're aware the boys sleep on her floor when they're here then get up early and sneak back to their own rooms.”

 

“Yes. I've known they would since the beginning. Every time around they've been extremely protective of her.”

 

“That's true. I'm going downstairs for food. I suggest you put that out before coming down,” he said, standing up and pointing to the sandbag. The sand which had poured out of it was now molten glass and was threatening to melt a hole in the floor.

 

“Might be an idea.”

 

Farf came downstairs from the training room, smiling slightly when he encountered his teammates' disbelieving stares. Not only was he looking at them with two perfectly good eyes but every scar had seemed to fade from his body, leaving completely unblemished skin. The woad seemed even more prominent against the almost perfectly white flesh. The piercings remained as did the inability to feel pain but everything else about him seemed changed somehow.

 

Crawford shook his head. “I need to adjust the radar, because this was a complete surprise.”

 

“It isn't your radar, Oracle. Not even you could have predicted this,” Farf said. “Edana is nothing if not thorough in protecting what she considers hers.”

 

“Freakiness,” was Schuldig's statement.

 

“Yes. I suppose it is. But no worse than before. Just different.”

 

“I'm not certain I like Farf completely sane,” Nagi said, shooting Ghost an odd look.

 

“He isn't exactly Farf anymore,” Blaze said from the top of the stairs.

 

Everyone but the Red Shaman team stared at her. Partially because of the fact she wasn't wearing anything but knee high boots and leather wrist bracers. Partially because she was literally covered in blue markings. They ran from her neck, all the way down her body to where her legs disappeared into the boots.

 

Farf smiled. “She has always faced an opponent that way. Throws them of guard.”

 

“Then why would I face you this way. Since you most certainly wouldn't be thrown off guard by it after all this time.”

 

“It's tradition at this point.”

 

“Yes, it is tradition.”

 

Ghost sighed and went to stand in front of both Nagi and Omi. She put one finger underneath either of their chins and forcibly closed their mouths.

 

“Honestly, you'd think they'd never seen a naked woman before,” Ghost said in an exasperated tone of voice.

 

“Probably not in person. On the net, definitely,” Schuldig said. “Well, that answers the ever burning question about Nagi at any rate.”

 

Nagi stifled the almost overwhelming urge to throw him into the wall.

 

“I see that activating Jeirn's markings also reactivated yours,” Sunny said from behind the newspaper. “Was there even a border skirmish you didn't get involved in back in the day, Goddess?”

 

“There was very little which had to do with fighting that I wasn't involved in,” Blaze said, coming down the stairs. “It always does reactivate my tattooing. These will fade in a day or so.”

 

“How are you going to explain it to your husbands?” Skye asked.

 

“They already know that I'm marked and what it means,” she said.

 

“Mastermind, I suggest you put that thought out of your head,” Farf said warningly. “Before I remove it in a way you'll find most unpleasant.”

 

Schuldig paled a bit then smirked. “Since when are you able to hear thoughts?”

 

“Since my abilities have returned and since you are practically broadcasting,” he said. Then with a flick of his wrist managed to ice certain interesting parts of Schuldig to the chair he was straddling. “That should cool you off.”

 

“Ah. Cold, cold, cold!” Schuldig said, trying unsuccessfully to pry himself from the chair.

 

“Jeirn, don't you think that was a bit much?” Blaze asked. Looking critically at the fact that from Schuldig's thighs to his waist was a solid block of ice.

 

“Not really. Though it will definitely give new meaning to him having blue balls,” Farf said smiling.

 

 

***************************Author's Notes*************************************

 

Thanks to the always wonderful moimoi-chan for the unfailing encouragement.

 

No shaman I have ever met, read about, or heard of has ever had point and shoot magick. It is sheer fiction, a figment of the imagination. Otherwise, far too many people would be barbecue.