[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: The Time of Ten Suns Part 3
Title: The Time of Ten Suns Part 3
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 2,283
Summary: One Sun was more than enough. Really. Inspired by the Chinese myth, The Legend of the Ten Suns.
Notes: I'm having a lot of fun with this fic. And also hoping I'm getting everything right, ahaha. XD A much quicker update this time~. Sketches by kiyutsuna at the end!
Previous part
Part 3
Dearest Ann,
What would you do if you found out that your sister Alice is not actually a perfect princess but rather a footloose charmer?
Would you find it difficult to regard her as such, always superimposing what you think you know about her?
I find it difficult not to slip. I really hope I can overcome that.
The first night with our ten Suns didn't end just like that. Although each of us were probably going through mundane actions like talking, bathing, and arranging where the Suns should sleep, things were never mundane with Sun around, especially now that we had ten of him.
My Sun had already given me a huge shock when he revealed that he wasn't even "Sun." To me, Grisia and the Sun Knight were one and the same. I couldn't imagine him not being the Sun Knight, nor could I ever imagine the Sun Knight not being Grisia.
That was why, even after learning that he wasn't "Sun" but rather "Storm," I wasn't able to turn my thinking around right away. When he helped me heat up the bath with fire magic, I absentmindedly said, "Thanks, Sun." Immediately following that, I paused and frowned.
"Uh, what should I call you?" I asked and peered up at him.
Perhaps it was because he wasn't Sun but rather Storm, known for being carefree and footloose, that his answer was so lighthearted that it bordered on being flippant. He said with a shrug, "Why not just Sun? Or what about Blue Sun? I have blue hair!" He twirled a strand of his hair, as if trying to prove to me that yes, he had blue hair.
I nibbled my lips. "But you're not Sun, right? Wouldn't calling you Sun be disrespectful?"
Just because I couldn't stop slipping and calling him Sun didn't mean it was okay for me to keep doing it. I was already feeling guilty.
He shrugged again and grinned cheekily. "You could always call me Grisia, but I don't think that solves anything."
It really wouldn't solve anything. If I were to call out that name, on top of having him respond, I'd get nine other people responding!
I gazed at his hair, still unused to seeing that color on him, but it did make his eyes appear even bluer. He must be quite a charming Storm Knight, and unlike my Storm, he didn't look the least bit tired! "Can I call you Blue?"
Right after I spoke, he dramatically placed a hand on his chest. "My first nickname! I'm so touched, Strawberry."
I blinked before I found a smile coming over my face, causing him to tilt his head. How I had longed to hear that nickname! These past few weeks had been much too long, much too silent, much too bereft of Sun.
He peered curiously at me. "Not a bad smile, Strawberry."
I smiled even more at hearing the nickname again, causing him to become even more confused. But true to the nature of Storm, he shrugged it off and grinned at me without making a big deal out of it. His reaction wasn't what I'd come to expect of Sun, of Grisia, nor was it what I would expect of Storm, but Grisia was always the type to carry out his role perfectly. If the Sun I knew had been chosen as Storm, wouldn't this be exactly the way he would act?
A perfect Storm Knight.
He wasn't Sun, and in many ways, he couldn't be any more unfamiliar, but... it was comforting finding out the similarities. I was glad to have him here. Additionally, he was quite skilled at heating up the bath too. He claimed that his strongest element was the wind element, followed by the holy element, but he wasn't bad at gathering the water element and the fire element either. He'd explained that both were super useful for bathing purposes.
It seemed that Blue was very fond of bathing. He was even humming as he gathered towels and rummaged through my bathing salts, soap, and shampoo.
"Why don't you bathe first?" I suggested, brows knitting together as I thought of how I'd have to wait a bit longer. After being away for so long, I was looking forward to finally having the chance to bathe and change into clean clothes. I was covered in dirt, sweat, blood, and even the guts of undead creatures, but even so, I couldn't bring it in myself to bathe first, not when Blue was so eager to bathe.
He widened his eyes at me. "Aren't you going to bathe? You know you stink right now, right? While you're adorably handsome, even I would think twice about letting you hug me again!"
I didn't know why Sun never frequented the public baths, but he had always avoided them like the plague, so I thought Blue would be similar and would want to bathe alone.
I was wrong.
I'd bathed with many of the other holy knights before, especially when we were younger and didn't have our own private baths, but Sun had stopped bathing with us early on. It was decisively strange having Blue bathe next to me when he was nearly a spitting image of Sun, other than the fact that he was younger and had blue hair.
What was even stranger was that he was now holding up a bottle of shampoo and offering to wash my hair! I hadn't had anyone wash my hair since I was six.
"I can't ever imagine Sun doing this," I murmured.
Blue merely hummed in response and dug his fingers into my scalp, his gentle ministrations soothing. The water was warm and comforting against my skin. I found myself relaxing. Here I was, bathing with someone who was technically a stranger, yet wasn't at the same time, and he was washing my hair.
I found myself chuckling, all of the tension that had built up over the past month draining away. I wiggled my toes, hoping they weren't becoming wrinkled just yet. Blue was taking his time with my hair.
"See? Baths are the best!" Blue exclaimed.
"I never said they weren't?" I responded, tilting my head backwards a bit, trying to catch sight of him, but he pushed me back with his hands, a silent protest to get me to stay still.
"Your expression totally implied it!" he protested. Then, without warning, a torrent of water suddenly rained down on me, washing away the bubbles.
I spluttered, my bangs plastered against my face. "Sun!" I immediately shouted as I pushed my wet bags out of my face.
"Uh uh, you said you'd call me Blue, remember?" he laughed and splashed water at me. It really wasn't fair when he could manipulate it! Even when I tried to duck, the water still hit me head on. My bangs were once again stuck to my face, but even though I couldn't see, I still knew what direction he was in! I turned and scooped the water, attempting to hurl it at him.
He laughed, and when I parted my hair, I was just in time to see water curling around him without hitting him at all.
"Your claim of being 'not bad at the water element' is completely an understatement," I said and then smiled. "That's really amazing."
Blue grinned, but even my praise didn't stop him from continuing to be silly. Just as he threw the water at me, a resounding BOOM split the air. He blinked, held his hands up in the air, and said, "That wasn't me."
The rest of the water he had levitated fell back down with a splatter. Meanwhile, water dripped down my face and hair. I tried to wipe it off.
I would dearly hope it wasn't him. If that loud boom had come from hitting me with water, I would be short a head by now. I spit a strand of hair out of my face, wondering if Blue would concede to giving me a strand of his pretty blue hair.
Following the boom, I could hear footsteps hurrying outside of my door.
"We should check it out too," I said, worried.
Blue nodded and very conveniently dried us off after we got out. With a flair of wind magic, he even dressed us up in a flash. All signs were pointing towards him being very comfortable with his magic. He even cast the Wings of God spell on us so that we could rush out quicker.
The sight that greeted us across the corridor was one we should have been prepared for, but maybe we had all been too overwhelmed that we had completely forgotten to address a very important problem -- there was one Sun with black hair and he was giving off an alarming amount of dark element. Even though he had seemed fine in the conference room, maybe because of the presence of all the other Suns, our experiences with Sun at the Valley of Trizer and while he battled Charlotte should have made us warier! Asking Metal to deal with him by himself was really too much!
I stared at what used to be Metal's room. It was now in smithereens. Metal had been blown out of the room, his clothes in tatters. Blood dripped down from his arms and lips. Alarmed, a bunch of healing spells landed on him at nearly the same time. He groaned, eyes barely fluttering open. We followed his gaze to the middle of the room.
There, in Metal's wrecked room, stood black haired Sun, dark element swirling around him, the reason why Metal was in such a state. Sun had his eyes shut tightly and his arms wrapped around himself, his hands gripping his shoulders so hard that his knuckles turned white, a lone figure in the raging storm.
"Judgment, no..." Sun whispered, his voice barely audible, his face pale.
By this time, we had all gathered, including the nine other Suns. Some had changed their clothes. Some had not. Short-haired Sun, who I had seen rushing out of Storm's room next to mine, was one of the ones who hadn't changed.
"Sun!" I called out in worry. "Sun, we're here! We're all here!"
I wasn't the only one who called out.
When Sun didn't respond at all to any of us, I looked toward Judgment, not knowing what I could do, what we could do, to help. In fact, we were all looking toward Judgment for guidance. Judgment gripped the Divine Judgment Sword, looking every bit like he was going to try to slash his way through the dark element, but a gloved hand stopped him. It belonged to the Sun who was staying with Moon.
"Let us deal with it," he said and gestured at the Suns around him. Except for the Sun with curly hair and the Sun who had asked us who we were, all of them gave a nod and stepped forward, seemingly understanding what the first Sun was suggesting. Then, they all began releasing holy light, the most coming from white-haired Sun. Blue tossed me a wink before he too began releasing great amounts of holy light. He had not been exaggerating when he said that his holy light abilities were fairly good.
It was an amazing sight to behold, seeing and feeling the room fill up with holy light. Seven Suns had their hands raised to counter the ensnaring darkness. I clasped my hands tightly, praying that they would be able to successfully reach Sun.
"Do you have the Eternal Tranquility?" The Sun who had stopped Judgment asked us. Not only was his appearance slightly more mature, he gave off a sense of security. When we shook our heads, he went on to ask, "What about the Divine Sun Sword?"
We shook our heads once more. The Divine Sun Sword, just like the Eternal Tranquility, had vanished along with Sun. In return, we now had ten Suns. Some of them had the Eternal Tranquility. Some of them had the Divine Sun Sword. Some didn't have one or the other. Black-haired Sun was one of the Suns who had neither.
Mature-looking Sun frowned and touched the necklace that lay against his chest. "I guess there's no other choice then..."
Seeing the motion, several other Suns likewise reached for their own Eternal Tranquility, but one glance at the thick dark element stilled any thoughts of parting with their necklaces. They couldn't afford to.
However, mature-looking Sun kept his hand on his necklace. He turned toward white-haired Sun and asked, "Can you clear a path for me?"
White-haired Sun nodded. He stood at the front of the Suns, the holy element dancing at his fingertips. The other Suns also contributed what they could, but white-haired Sun was definitely the one who was releasing the most holy light.
As the dark element partially cleared before us, the path only enough for one person, mature-looking Sun walked forward. He reached upward to unclasp the Eternal Tranquility that he wore, and then he even took off the Divine Sun Sword he had by his waist. Immediately, the gold from his hair faded.
The farther away he walked from us, the less reach the Suns' holy light had. In the end, he had to use the Divine Sun Sword to forge the rest of his way, his progress greatly slowed. I thought I even saw black seeping into the roots of his hair. He clenched his hand tightly around the necklace. When he did so, the black receded just a bit.
Seeing the situation, sword-wielding Sun ran forward, straight into the path that was already closing, releasing holy light as he went to widen the path for himself. White-haired Sun quickly gave him a helping hand, but sword-wielding Sun made most of his own path by slashing at the dark element with the Divine Sun Sword. When he caught up with the other Sun, he was rewarded with a thankful nod.
Then, together, they finally reached black-haired Sun.
to be continued
You know, I thought the bath scene was going to turn awkward, but it actually came out... kind of... cute? :'D
Here's Blue~~~, sketched by Kiyutsuna. Can you believe she drew out all ten Suns? Masochistic or what. <3 It's so cool and epic to see~~. But spoilerish for what's to come in the fic, so I won't post all of them at once. XD
*flails* I AM SORRY, LEAF. KIYU. DID I SUCCEED? I was nearly going to end the chapter at "I guess there's no other choice then..." :'D (LEAF, HOW ARE YOU SO CUTE)
The bath scene gave me a lot of trouble. This is version 2 that you're seeing. XD; I was planning on tossing it all out, but then the scene turned cute on me, and I told Kiyu, you know what, Blue and Leaf might even end up splashing water at each other!
Kiyu threatened me not to have that happen. She would draw Leaf and Blue in bikinis if I wrote that.
(is that a threat or a bribe)
Guess what! I wrote it! 8D
And so, Kiyu drew Leaf and Blue in bikinis. XDDDD
Life is good.
Next part
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 2,283
Summary: One Sun was more than enough. Really. Inspired by the Chinese myth, The Legend of the Ten Suns.
Notes: I'm having a lot of fun with this fic. And also hoping I'm getting everything right, ahaha. XD A much quicker update this time~. Sketches by kiyutsuna at the end!
Previous part
Part 3
Dearest Ann,
What would you do if you found out that your sister Alice is not actually a perfect princess but rather a footloose charmer?
Would you find it difficult to regard her as such, always superimposing what you think you know about her?
I find it difficult not to slip. I really hope I can overcome that.
The first night with our ten Suns didn't end just like that. Although each of us were probably going through mundane actions like talking, bathing, and arranging where the Suns should sleep, things were never mundane with Sun around, especially now that we had ten of him.
My Sun had already given me a huge shock when he revealed that he wasn't even "Sun." To me, Grisia and the Sun Knight were one and the same. I couldn't imagine him not being the Sun Knight, nor could I ever imagine the Sun Knight not being Grisia.
That was why, even after learning that he wasn't "Sun" but rather "Storm," I wasn't able to turn my thinking around right away. When he helped me heat up the bath with fire magic, I absentmindedly said, "Thanks, Sun." Immediately following that, I paused and frowned.
"Uh, what should I call you?" I asked and peered up at him.
Perhaps it was because he wasn't Sun but rather Storm, known for being carefree and footloose, that his answer was so lighthearted that it bordered on being flippant. He said with a shrug, "Why not just Sun? Or what about Blue Sun? I have blue hair!" He twirled a strand of his hair, as if trying to prove to me that yes, he had blue hair.
I nibbled my lips. "But you're not Sun, right? Wouldn't calling you Sun be disrespectful?"
Just because I couldn't stop slipping and calling him Sun didn't mean it was okay for me to keep doing it. I was already feeling guilty.
He shrugged again and grinned cheekily. "You could always call me Grisia, but I don't think that solves anything."
It really wouldn't solve anything. If I were to call out that name, on top of having him respond, I'd get nine other people responding!
I gazed at his hair, still unused to seeing that color on him, but it did make his eyes appear even bluer. He must be quite a charming Storm Knight, and unlike my Storm, he didn't look the least bit tired! "Can I call you Blue?"
Right after I spoke, he dramatically placed a hand on his chest. "My first nickname! I'm so touched, Strawberry."
I blinked before I found a smile coming over my face, causing him to tilt his head. How I had longed to hear that nickname! These past few weeks had been much too long, much too silent, much too bereft of Sun.
He peered curiously at me. "Not a bad smile, Strawberry."
I smiled even more at hearing the nickname again, causing him to become even more confused. But true to the nature of Storm, he shrugged it off and grinned at me without making a big deal out of it. His reaction wasn't what I'd come to expect of Sun, of Grisia, nor was it what I would expect of Storm, but Grisia was always the type to carry out his role perfectly. If the Sun I knew had been chosen as Storm, wouldn't this be exactly the way he would act?
A perfect Storm Knight.
He wasn't Sun, and in many ways, he couldn't be any more unfamiliar, but... it was comforting finding out the similarities. I was glad to have him here. Additionally, he was quite skilled at heating up the bath too. He claimed that his strongest element was the wind element, followed by the holy element, but he wasn't bad at gathering the water element and the fire element either. He'd explained that both were super useful for bathing purposes.
It seemed that Blue was very fond of bathing. He was even humming as he gathered towels and rummaged through my bathing salts, soap, and shampoo.
"Why don't you bathe first?" I suggested, brows knitting together as I thought of how I'd have to wait a bit longer. After being away for so long, I was looking forward to finally having the chance to bathe and change into clean clothes. I was covered in dirt, sweat, blood, and even the guts of undead creatures, but even so, I couldn't bring it in myself to bathe first, not when Blue was so eager to bathe.
He widened his eyes at me. "Aren't you going to bathe? You know you stink right now, right? While you're adorably handsome, even I would think twice about letting you hug me again!"
I didn't know why Sun never frequented the public baths, but he had always avoided them like the plague, so I thought Blue would be similar and would want to bathe alone.
I was wrong.
I'd bathed with many of the other holy knights before, especially when we were younger and didn't have our own private baths, but Sun had stopped bathing with us early on. It was decisively strange having Blue bathe next to me when he was nearly a spitting image of Sun, other than the fact that he was younger and had blue hair.
What was even stranger was that he was now holding up a bottle of shampoo and offering to wash my hair! I hadn't had anyone wash my hair since I was six.
"I can't ever imagine Sun doing this," I murmured.
Blue merely hummed in response and dug his fingers into my scalp, his gentle ministrations soothing. The water was warm and comforting against my skin. I found myself relaxing. Here I was, bathing with someone who was technically a stranger, yet wasn't at the same time, and he was washing my hair.
I found myself chuckling, all of the tension that had built up over the past month draining away. I wiggled my toes, hoping they weren't becoming wrinkled just yet. Blue was taking his time with my hair.
"See? Baths are the best!" Blue exclaimed.
"I never said they weren't?" I responded, tilting my head backwards a bit, trying to catch sight of him, but he pushed me back with his hands, a silent protest to get me to stay still.
"Your expression totally implied it!" he protested. Then, without warning, a torrent of water suddenly rained down on me, washing away the bubbles.
I spluttered, my bangs plastered against my face. "Sun!" I immediately shouted as I pushed my wet bags out of my face.
"Uh uh, you said you'd call me Blue, remember?" he laughed and splashed water at me. It really wasn't fair when he could manipulate it! Even when I tried to duck, the water still hit me head on. My bangs were once again stuck to my face, but even though I couldn't see, I still knew what direction he was in! I turned and scooped the water, attempting to hurl it at him.
He laughed, and when I parted my hair, I was just in time to see water curling around him without hitting him at all.
"Your claim of being 'not bad at the water element' is completely an understatement," I said and then smiled. "That's really amazing."
Blue grinned, but even my praise didn't stop him from continuing to be silly. Just as he threw the water at me, a resounding BOOM split the air. He blinked, held his hands up in the air, and said, "That wasn't me."
The rest of the water he had levitated fell back down with a splatter. Meanwhile, water dripped down my face and hair. I tried to wipe it off.
I would dearly hope it wasn't him. If that loud boom had come from hitting me with water, I would be short a head by now. I spit a strand of hair out of my face, wondering if Blue would concede to giving me a strand of his pretty blue hair.
Following the boom, I could hear footsteps hurrying outside of my door.
"We should check it out too," I said, worried.
Blue nodded and very conveniently dried us off after we got out. With a flair of wind magic, he even dressed us up in a flash. All signs were pointing towards him being very comfortable with his magic. He even cast the Wings of God spell on us so that we could rush out quicker.
The sight that greeted us across the corridor was one we should have been prepared for, but maybe we had all been too overwhelmed that we had completely forgotten to address a very important problem -- there was one Sun with black hair and he was giving off an alarming amount of dark element. Even though he had seemed fine in the conference room, maybe because of the presence of all the other Suns, our experiences with Sun at the Valley of Trizer and while he battled Charlotte should have made us warier! Asking Metal to deal with him by himself was really too much!
I stared at what used to be Metal's room. It was now in smithereens. Metal had been blown out of the room, his clothes in tatters. Blood dripped down from his arms and lips. Alarmed, a bunch of healing spells landed on him at nearly the same time. He groaned, eyes barely fluttering open. We followed his gaze to the middle of the room.
There, in Metal's wrecked room, stood black haired Sun, dark element swirling around him, the reason why Metal was in such a state. Sun had his eyes shut tightly and his arms wrapped around himself, his hands gripping his shoulders so hard that his knuckles turned white, a lone figure in the raging storm.
"Judgment, no..." Sun whispered, his voice barely audible, his face pale.
By this time, we had all gathered, including the nine other Suns. Some had changed their clothes. Some had not. Short-haired Sun, who I had seen rushing out of Storm's room next to mine, was one of the ones who hadn't changed.
"Sun!" I called out in worry. "Sun, we're here! We're all here!"
I wasn't the only one who called out.
When Sun didn't respond at all to any of us, I looked toward Judgment, not knowing what I could do, what we could do, to help. In fact, we were all looking toward Judgment for guidance. Judgment gripped the Divine Judgment Sword, looking every bit like he was going to try to slash his way through the dark element, but a gloved hand stopped him. It belonged to the Sun who was staying with Moon.
"Let us deal with it," he said and gestured at the Suns around him. Except for the Sun with curly hair and the Sun who had asked us who we were, all of them gave a nod and stepped forward, seemingly understanding what the first Sun was suggesting. Then, they all began releasing holy light, the most coming from white-haired Sun. Blue tossed me a wink before he too began releasing great amounts of holy light. He had not been exaggerating when he said that his holy light abilities were fairly good.
It was an amazing sight to behold, seeing and feeling the room fill up with holy light. Seven Suns had their hands raised to counter the ensnaring darkness. I clasped my hands tightly, praying that they would be able to successfully reach Sun.
"Do you have the Eternal Tranquility?" The Sun who had stopped Judgment asked us. Not only was his appearance slightly more mature, he gave off a sense of security. When we shook our heads, he went on to ask, "What about the Divine Sun Sword?"
We shook our heads once more. The Divine Sun Sword, just like the Eternal Tranquility, had vanished along with Sun. In return, we now had ten Suns. Some of them had the Eternal Tranquility. Some of them had the Divine Sun Sword. Some didn't have one or the other. Black-haired Sun was one of the Suns who had neither.
Mature-looking Sun frowned and touched the necklace that lay against his chest. "I guess there's no other choice then..."
Seeing the motion, several other Suns likewise reached for their own Eternal Tranquility, but one glance at the thick dark element stilled any thoughts of parting with their necklaces. They couldn't afford to.
However, mature-looking Sun kept his hand on his necklace. He turned toward white-haired Sun and asked, "Can you clear a path for me?"
White-haired Sun nodded. He stood at the front of the Suns, the holy element dancing at his fingertips. The other Suns also contributed what they could, but white-haired Sun was definitely the one who was releasing the most holy light.
As the dark element partially cleared before us, the path only enough for one person, mature-looking Sun walked forward. He reached upward to unclasp the Eternal Tranquility that he wore, and then he even took off the Divine Sun Sword he had by his waist. Immediately, the gold from his hair faded.
The farther away he walked from us, the less reach the Suns' holy light had. In the end, he had to use the Divine Sun Sword to forge the rest of his way, his progress greatly slowed. I thought I even saw black seeping into the roots of his hair. He clenched his hand tightly around the necklace. When he did so, the black receded just a bit.
Seeing the situation, sword-wielding Sun ran forward, straight into the path that was already closing, releasing holy light as he went to widen the path for himself. White-haired Sun quickly gave him a helping hand, but sword-wielding Sun made most of his own path by slashing at the dark element with the Divine Sun Sword. When he caught up with the other Sun, he was rewarded with a thankful nod.
Then, together, they finally reached black-haired Sun.
to be continued
You know, I thought the bath scene was going to turn awkward, but it actually came out... kind of... cute? :'D
Here's Blue~~~, sketched by Kiyutsuna. Can you believe she drew out all ten Suns? Masochistic or what. <3 It's so cool and epic to see~~. But spoilerish for what's to come in the fic, so I won't post all of them at once. XD
*flails* I AM SORRY, LEAF. KIYU. DID I SUCCEED? I was nearly going to end the chapter at "I guess there's no other choice then..." :'D (LEAF, HOW ARE YOU SO CUTE)
The bath scene gave me a lot of trouble. This is version 2 that you're seeing. XD; I was planning on tossing it all out, but then the scene turned cute on me, and I told Kiyu, you know what, Blue and Leaf might even end up splashing water at each other!
Kiyu threatened me not to have that happen. She would draw Leaf and Blue in bikinis if I wrote that.
(is that a threat or a bribe)
Guess what! I wrote it! 8D
And so, Kiyu drew Leaf and Blue in bikinis. XDDDD
Life is good.
Next part