| [Oct. 22nd, 2017|09:43 pm] |
The wolf god's breath seared Ryouma's face. He stared up at the caged bars of her teeth, the bleach-white fur of her muzzle, and for a moment he could see his own arm between those teeth, his own red blood staining her fur—
She knew. She tilted her head again to catch him in the glare of that burning golden eye, and she knew, she could see Akiyama in the cave during the ANBU Trials, the scalpel slicing down, the white gleam of tendon and the red rush of terror.
Genma had saved his hand, that time. Stopped the bleeding and stabilized the rest until hospital medics could take over. Ryouma hadn't known his name then. He'd barely thanked him.
Time to pay that debt.
His voice shook. "Let me up. You can have it."
Trapped under the black wolf's other paw, Kakashi snarled, a high frantic sound like a cornered animal.
Raidou snapped, "No! Ryouma, don't be a fool—"
His voice broke off in a yelp of pain as the white wolf sat back, sleekly satisfied, and picked Raidou up in her teeth.
"No, don't—" The massive paw pinning Ryouma eased away, and he rolled from beneath and scrambled up. "I'm here. Don't hurt him."
The white wolf's ears flicked. She lowered her head delicately, dropping Raidou where Ryouma had lain. Raidou hit stone on his injured side and gasped aloud. The black wolf's paw came down, trapping him.
Kakashi's dogs had drawn back into a tight, worried huddle at the back of the den. Ryouma could hear Kin's anxious whine from here. The grey wolf paced in front of them, his tail lashing, nails scoring the stone. He wanted to eat them all. And he'd probably get his way, if Ryouma didn't follow through.
Ryouma stepped away from the black wolf, toward the white.
Sound seemed to be going funny. He could hear the click of the grey wolf's nails, the thin thread of Kin's concern, but his own footsteps seemed muffled. Raidou's broken breathing was very clear. Kakashi had gone silent, or maybe Ryouma just couldn't hear him. He wasn't sure which to hope for.
The white wolf's head lowered. Both eyes fixed on him, sun-gold, circled with burnt-black rims. She stared, pitiless, into the darkest little corners of his soul, and told him, "Hold out your arm."
Raidou yelled. The sound didn't make sense. Ryouma's own heartbeat seemed to be the loudest thing in the world, now.
He thought, distantly, No healing jutsu. Kakashi could cauterize it. Or he'd bleed to death. That might not be bad. He'd seen men's lives ebb away. It looked, sometimes, as if they were going to sleep.
Fukuda had lived, and fought, with one arm. Until she'd sacrificed her life for the chance to save her sister.
Debts coming due.
He unbuckled his armguard, let it fall. Drew off the glove.
Held out his right arm.
The white wolf's teeth closed delicately above his wrist, points sharp as knives. Skin broke. Ryouma closed his eyes.
Half a dozen heartbeats hammered by. The teeth sank deeper. He felt blood begin to run. He clamped his teeth down, refusing to scream—
The teeth withdrew.
The wolf's paw came up, batted him gently over, and braced him as he fell. She lowered her nose down to his eye-level. The golden eyes still burned, but this time the judgment did not seem to find him wanting.
"Brave little rabbit. You don't have a wolf heart, but maybe in a few hundred years. Would you like to stay?"
Ryouma dragged in his first aching breath. His arm hurt. He looked down and saw two neat scratches on either side of the bone, with a little blood trickling toward his wrist.
He let the breath out.
"I want to find my lieutenant." |
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