Chapter Text
1) Magic
Magic was something he found unsettling. His rational, scientific mind used to rebel at the thought something that escaped the very laws of physics could be real. Magic was a performing art where, behind the illusions, there was a method, parlor tricks, sleight of hands. Rabbits couldn’t really appear out of hats and thin air and a person cut in two couldn’t be alive!
Yet, there is nothing illusory about the gleaming jewel Touma is cradling in his hands, and as the world tilts on its axis and he’s forced to acknowledge magic is real, he wants to scream.
2) Freedom
They don’t understand just how oppressive it can be to be the family’s only male heir. It’s not that he dislikes the education he’s receiving, on the contrary – he loves kendo, he loves the bonsai and the shakuhachi. Yet, he can’t help but feel there is a wall between him and his classmates. They’re more carefree than he can ever be, laughing and play-fighting on the way to school while he trails behind, appearing dignified.
He's not a prisoner of his role, Seiji tells himself freely. But it would be nice, he thinks as he goes home, if he could be granted a little more freedom once in a while.
3) Pride
He’s too prideful, that redhead boy.
Not that Rajura does not see why:
Oni Masho Shuten Douji might be the last of them to enter Arago’s service but he’s dashing, good-looking, strong and, while not exactly what Rajura could call cunning, he does have a certain form of intellect (or, at the very least, he’s well-read; Rajura snuck in his room and perused through the man’s possessions to get a better read, and nicked a book or two for himself).
Yes, Shuten has his reason to boast.
Yet, Rajura thinks blandly as he watches him, the redhead should remember what they say about pride before the fall…
4) Acceptance
It takes her visiting her extended, Japanese family for more than a few days for Nasutei to realize just how much their acceptance of her is conditional. She shouldn’t be surprised because it fits with their lack of contact while she was growing up in France, but it still stings.
She shouldn’t bother with them, she tells herself as she drives her car away. Really. She’s half-French and always will be. She’s not forced to cook only traditional Japanese dishes and never speak her Mom’s language just to please them.
She still does.
She has too little family remaining here now to risk losing what’s left.
5) Worthy
He examines a dozen of children taken from the razed Clan compound before he finds the gem he was looking for. Squealing brats cry for their parents as he pokes and probes at them, tests their resilience and screen them for glimmers of potential only to discard them when he realizes how weak they are
The girl with the blue hair is the only one who doesn’t burst in tears. She stares back straight at him, even if her eyes are wide and red and when he touches her, he can feel power dancing under her skin.
Yes, Badamon starts to smirk. Only that girl, Kayura, is worthy to become his tool.
6) Glory
He has to be the first to talk and offer to fight. Of course he has. He’s the Yon Dai Masho’s leader, after all; he must always step forward, reach higher, reach farther so his position is never put back into question. Perhaps the others take it for arrogance (and maybe it is, a little) but it’s their fault, too. If they weren’t always coveting his place, Shuten wouldn’t have to seek out every challenge to make a point.
The Troopers are naive, weak fools, hardly a threat at all.
Yet, they’ll make another decent stepping stone for Shuten to get even more glory to his name.
7) Refrain
He doesn’t dare to go out all the way with his powers. At least, not at first. Unconsciously, whenever he had tested the armor, Shin had held back, refrained himself, all too aware of what force water can hold when unleashed. He has felt it in the tides, feet anchored in the sand as the waves crashed around and over him. The power he feels at his fingertips when he wears Suiko is intense, wild, crushing.
It’s not the sort of power one should use lightly, not after seeing what Ryo’s attack did in Shinjuku.
Then, Naaza poisons the sea, and all restraint Shin had flee out of the window.
8) Abundance
Shuten may see it as a weakness, but Anubisu holds firm in his opinion they need to watch and learn more before they strike. The Troopers haven’t made a good show of power, experience and maturity so the Yami cannot say he doesn’t get Shuten’s point of view. Yet, their Master has warned them against the Troopers for years now, and Arago-sama never give warnings lightly so they must not forget it either.
Those boys are or may become more dangerous than first glance suggests.
And, in Anubisu’s opinion, when it comes to battle, an abundance or over-abundance of caution has never hurt anyone.
9) Water
He soaks into the water for hours after finally waking up. Staring at the sky, arms crossed behind his head as he floats and just watch the sky, Shin lets the water heal and reinforce him while Nasutei and Jun provide first-aid to the other Troopers. Ryo is awake too, curled against Byakuen, talking to the tiger softly, and guilt and rage both war in Shin’s heart over being so easily tricked by Rajura and hurting one of his friends.
It never should have happened. He won’t let it happen again.
Or so he swears as he lets the water lap away his pains.
10) Lava
Climbing out of the volcano is grueling and, frankly, terrifying. Yes, given how he has awoken, even if he loses his grip and fall, he shouldn’t get harmed or burned or anything but still… it’s lava underneath him!
Lava!
The only reason he hasn’t burn to a crisp is because he’s wearing Rekka and Ryo had absolutely no idea the armor could let him survive a heat so intense! How would he have know? It’s not like diving in lava had ever been on his list of things to try!
It makes wonder, though, just what other surprise the armor has in store for him…