[TRC] Shura Country Log It wasn't the worst place the manjuu had dropped them, and it sure as hell wasn't the most boring, but still, Kurogane had reservations about being dumped right in the middle of a battle he knew nothing about, and could hardly see anything in because of the smoke and dust flying everywhere. It didn't take longer than the space of half a breath before his hand was on Souhi and his eyes were narrowed to take stock of the battle itself.
The clothing and armour, at least, was relatively familiar, but to a certain extent, it always was. The strange thing, though, was the crest he could see in brief moments of stillness-- the crescent moon, the same that was sewn into the shoulders of his own clothes. His hand was resting on Souhi, sure enough, but the rest of the combatants didn't appear to be paying them any notice.
Just as well. Somewhere behind him, the mage was babbling, and when he turned his head to tell him to be quiet and to get down on the ground so he didn't get his fool head cut off accidentally, he realised why he hadn't found the sound as irritating as he usually did: he couldn't understand a word that Fai was saying.
He had a split second to wonder where the hell the manjuu was now, that it wasn't even close enough for them to understand each other, before he decided there was no time to worry about that now. They'd have to find some place to hole up for this battle, and the middle of an open rocky field wasn't the place to do it.
He drew Souhi. He twisted just enough to reach Fai's shoulder and clamp his hand around it. And then he started off at a run, toward a chunk of rock some fifty feet away through the swirling smoke, dragging the damn mage behind him.
"Phwee~oo~, Kuro-pon!" Fai fake-whistled, doing his best to stay clear of any swinging blades. "Moko-chan sure dropped us someplace dangerous this time!"
The slender mage gave a startled laugh and took a few steps closer to Kurogane as some particularly bellicose warriors appeared out of the dust, fighting viciously not a few feet away. "Hey, those guys are wearing symbols kind of like yours, Kuro-rin! Does that mean they're your friends; do you recognize any of them?"
He looked around as best he could through the dusty haze around them, trying to make sure the children were alright. Not that he didn't think Syaoran-kun could hold his own for a little bit protecting Sakura-chan, but... well, Fai was worried. This was a full-on battle, and Kurogane's sword should be protecting them, not him.
"Do you see our other friends anywhere around?" he asked, smile fading a little now that he realized they were probably split up again. "Hm? Are you listening, Kuro-"
It was then that he heard some of the nearby soldiers yelling things to one another over the clash of swords, and realized he couldn't understand a word they were saying! Which probably meant Mokona was too far away (hopefully with the children) for their words to make sense to him and also that...
"You can't understand me at all, can you? So if I were to tell you--" His words were cut short as Kurogane grabbed him by the shoulder and started dragging him off at a run. Fai staggered on behind the ninja, grinning widely to mask his very real fear.
The grip on Fai's arm dragged them both to the ground as a burst of arrows whistled overhead, and then up again, and into the lee of that rock formation, Kurogane's teeth bared at the battlefield, his arm still across Fai's chest, holding him against the rock. "Stay there!" he barked, emphasizing the command with a glance backward and a firm press of his forearm. The look on the mage's face said he was perfectly comfortable with this arrangement, but the tension in him belied the stupid grin. Not for the first time, Kurogane wondered why the hell he couldn't just look the way he felt for once.
He let go of Fai's shoulder, moving in front of him slightly as a skirmish a dozen yards away moved suddenly a little closer. Souhi was raised, but the rock and the mage were too close to give him any room to move, so he took a quick step away, hating the longer sleeves on the shirt he'd borrowed from the jinja. Good thing these people seemed to be fighting tired, or they might be a real hazard to him.
"Ow, that hurt!" Fai said, smiling through the slight pain even as he was pressed down against some pretty rough rocks with Kurogane's no-less-solid arm holding him there. He got the message, though. Kuro-pin wanted him to stay put. Well, Fai had no problem with that idea. Getting killed didn't sound like much fun, though he'd sooner do that that use his unsealed magic to save himself.
Besides, Kurogane would probably have fun swinging his big sword around, so it was the best situation for both of them at this point. "Go, Kuro-sama! My knight in... well, I guess your armor isn't so shiny, is it? Haha~!"
It wasn't so much shining at this point as completely non-existant, but since to Kurogane every word out of the mage's mouth currently sounded like it was being played backward with a mouthful of anpan just for the sake of insanity, he was unable to point this out. He didn't even bother to wave a hand at the mage, too concerned with which direction death was most likely to come at them from. Kurogane didn't look too out of place, but Fai's colouring was altogether too pale to fit in with any of the warriors around him - even the fairest of the foreign warriors was more tortoise-shell than white, though the opponents of the darkly-clad warriors were dressed in white and gold. Kurogane had enough time to scoff quietly at what a stupid choice that had been before one of the pale bastards noticed him, noticed his crest, and noticed that he was near enough to be charged at.
Kurogane didn't bother looking back to check that Fai had stayed in place. He took three long strides forward, bringing Souhi up to block the other man's naginata. The longer weapon might have been an advantage to begin with, but Kurogane had plenty of experience in getting inside people's guards-- apparently more experience than his opponent did in preventing people from doing so. Souhi holding the spear-like weapon at bay, Kurogane stepped under it and spun, letting the naginata fall at last, but slashing in a short, swift circle before his opponent had the chance to leap backward. The pale cloth washed red immediately, and Kurogane stooped only to grab the naginata and toss it haphazardly in the mage's direction before he concentrated on the rest of the encroaching white army.
Fai caught the thrown weapon easily, though he'd had mere seconds to notice it was coming his way. "Oooh, a spear-thing; Kuro-min wants me to protect myself?" the mage asked, waving the odd weapon around over his head, looking a lot more like he was playing with it than fighting with it.
He had no idea how to use the strange spear, but he figured he'd at least poke at enemies if they tried to get too close to him. Fai stood up, prepared to do what he could to help out if he had to. In the meantime, he continued to cheer Kurogane on, much preferring to make light of the situation than to let the gravity of it sink in.
Having dispatched two more of the white-clad warriors, Kurogane's face on seeing the mage's incompetent twirlings was something of a work in comic horror. He brought his sword up to block a new attack, even as he roared, "I THOUGHT YOU KNEW HOW TO USE A POLE-ARM," in the mage's general direction. He knew the mage couldn't understand a word he was saying, but the quivering frustrated rage was less distracting if he vented it.
He pushed back at his opponent savagely, then gave four or five feet in order to stand by the mage in a defensive stance, just far enough out from the rock formation that he had a decent range of movement. This wasn't their fight, and he was damned if he'd go back to the kids with a body just because the mage was an idiot whose magical staff-thing was apparently for purely decorative purposes.
A great beast like a small, wingless dragon thundered past, charging straight through a group of encroaching white soldiers, and Kurogane darted forward and back again quickly, impaling the single man who'd managed to avoid the infantryman's blade. The man on dragon-back nodded in Kurogane's direction briefly, and then paused to scrutinise him more closely as he recognised - unlike the white soldiers - that their mon were not identical.
Kurogane grit his teeth and backed up against the rock again. This wasn't his goddamn battle, and he'd just stepped in and picked a side anyway. Damn.
If Fai could have understood what Kurogane was yelling at him, he'd have answered that his magical staff was just that--magical. It was a conduit for his innate magic, something that enhanced it and enabled him to direct it better. He didn't just whack things with it! As it was, though, the longer he held the spear-like weapon, the more comfortable it felt in his hands.
That, combined with the raw fury Kurogane was exhibiting and the amount of bodies (all white-clad ones, he noticed) piling up around his companion finally convinced Fai to take things a little more seriously. Odd as it felt to engage in combat, he wielded the unfamiliar weapon smoothly enough, using it to block an attack from a white-clad warrior who had come at him from around a corner of the rock formation. A few more strokes and his spear was stained red, the soldier fallen.
And that little look between the ninja and the soldier on dragonback hadn't escaped Fai's attention either. Something had passed between them, though the mage was not certain what it meant. "Are we on their side, then?" he asked, smiling softly as he was forced again to use the weapon he had been given.
The dark soldier stared at them a few moments longer, and then, black eyes narrowed intently, he moved away again, sword raised, as a smaller group of white soldiers moved in.
Kurogane retreated a few steps, not exactly relieved, because he hadn't been afraid, but slightly less tense than he had been a few seconds beforehand. A white soldier fell again at his feet, and Kurogane glanced back to see the mage deftly fending off a few of his own attackers. There. He'd hoped the bastard was just playing around. Though his form was still pretty atrocious; he had a tendency to wave it like a wand, and not a weapon.
He didn't dart in to assist until the mage said something to him in aside while another enemy raised his sword, shouting something only half-intelligible. Then it only took two strides to drive Souhi through the soldier's unprotected side, and another step back to notice that the dragon rider had returned.
Kurogane raised a hand to still the mage's weapon, just in case. The battle seemed to have slowed somewhat, as though it was winding down, but that was ridiculous. There were still so many of them, and no one was being boxed in as far as he could tell. The rider stepped closer, cocking his head, and said something.
To Kurogane's surprise, he understood part of it.
"Neutral," he tried to answer, and when this produced only a puzzled expression, tried, "Accident. Uh, refugees. Travellers. Friends," was his final bid at forging an understanding, cursing the fact that he'd actually refused language lessons back in Japan, to Tomoyo-hime's knowing chuckles.
And then the infantryman laughed, and muttered something, which also contained the words 'friend' and 'debt', and suddenly they were speaking a language Kurogane understood completely. He wiped his sword off as the battle ground to a halt around them, and shook his head with a grin.
"No debt," he decided, and received a grin in return before the ground began to shake.
As Kurogane and the dragon rider spoke, Fai kept a close eye on the expressions and body language of the two, his own face a mask of blithe calmness. It was the best way to get a sense of what was being said, seeing as their words all flowed together in a stream of nonsense. He was more than happy to stand back and let Kuro-pin take the lead.
While the friendly exchange was rather reassuring, the fact that the battle had ended so abruptly with no clear winner was disconcerting to say the least(Fai hadn't been in many out-and-out battles, but he certainly knew this was not normal), and the shaking ground and accompanying pull of intensely strong magic was enough to set his senses on edge and shake the smile from his face.
But still it was not enough to make him use his own magic; he doubted whether he was quite strong enough to resist getting swept up in the strong tide anyway. Fai stumbled and grabbed hold of Kurogane's arm--if there was no choice then at least they could ride this out together and hope for the best...
Kurogane had tensed when the shaking had begun; when Fai's hand landed on his arm, he twitched, but didn't pull away. Earthquakes were all too common in Nihon, and as long as there wasn't any danger of the ground pulling apart underneath him, he wasn't too bothered by them. He wondered, briefly, what experience the mage had with them, but the battle around them had come to a standstill. The soldiers - both black and white - appeared to be waiting for something.
The infantryman was staring at the sky. At the moon, almost perfectly above them, almost at its zenith. Kurogane glanced around him and realised that... most of the soldiers were doing the same. Kurogane sensed no murderous pressure this time, though. He glanced toward the mage to see if Fai felt anything.