忍ぶ感情 Shinobu Kanjyo
Title: Part 3: Shinobu Kanjyo
Rating: PG13 (violence)
Pairing: Jun/Ohno, Sho/Nino
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: twenty-five
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?
Part 1: Shinobu Ishi ( Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four, Chapter five, Chapter six, Chapter seven)
Part 2: Shinobu Kokoro ( Chapter eight, Chapter nine, Chapter ten, Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen)
Part 3: Shinobu Kanjyo ( Chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen, Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty, Chapter twenty-one, Chapter twenty-two, Chapter twenty-three, Chapter twenty-four
When Ohno passed out, Sho wasn’t sure which of his friends he should be more worried about.
He was trying to monitor Jun after Aiba had suddenly moved over to Ohno, leaving the younger man simply lying on the ground even though he seemed to be on the verge of death. But when Jun’s body stopped shaking, Sho leaned over him to find out if he was still conscious or not. When he realized that he wasn’t, he moved his cheek over Jun’s mouth to see if he was breathing.
When Sho couldn’t feel any air passing through his lips, he started to panic, immediately feeling Jun’s neck, on the side that wasn’t swollen and bright red, trying to find a pulse.
But as soon as he had told that to Aiba just a second ago, the herbalist didn’t respond, caught up in examining Ohno’s wound and trying to stop any bleeding that he could.
“Aiba-“ Sho started again in a tense voice, louder than he probably should have been. He was worried for both of them, but Ohno’s chest was still haphazardly rising and falling, proof that he was still alive, if barely more so than Jun.
Maybe Aiba knew that there was no hope for Jun so he had moved on to Ohno to save him before it was too late.
Sho’s eyes were filling with tears as he looked down at Jun’s pale face again and Nino was barely holding himself together as well.
“Aiba,” Nino whined in a quiet tone, tugging on the herbalist’s sleeve, obviously asking about Jun, if he was going to be okay or if they really had arrived too late.
It didn’t seem like only an hour ago that their lives had been going on as usual. Nino and Sho had just left the general store after buying some supplies for the mission they were scheduled to leave on in the morning when they had run into Kame and Kouki. The two ninja were chatting about Ohno, so Nino immediately stopped and interrupted their conversation, asking if something was wrong with the captain. Kame explained that Kouki had met with Jun that afternoon and then Ohno only a few minutes ago, and that the swordsman had been acting more rushed than they had ever seen him before. After Kouki reiterated the words Jun had asked him to pass on, both Sho and Nino thought that was strange. Jun was more likely to drag Leader off himself rather than pass on a message. Together they headed in the direction of the forest to catch up with the pair, even though Nino only had a general guess as to where they would be.
On their way they met Aiba, who was headed in a similar direction, and he had explained that he was worried over Jun being out instead of resting. He had gone to Mao’s house looking for him and had heard a similarly strange story from her.
The trio had rushed to the line of trees together, their destination the fallen log that Jun had told Nino he was using as the place to confess to Ohno, even though none of them were sure that it was the area that Ohno had been headed only a few minutes before them. They weren’t sure anything was wrong, either, but if they were overreacting, they would probably only walk in on the two making out, which Nino had teased would be good material for making them blush later.
But it turned out they were right in their unease. They had come across the scene right as Ohno had been attacked by Yokoyama and was struggling to walk further into the trees, away from the clearing.
Even upon witnessing their wounded Leader, none of them interrupted. Yokoyama was making threats about Jun, and Sho knew that Ohno would have killed any of them if they had cut in before their comrade’s whereabouts were known. Otherwise the swordmaster would have already taken out Yokoyama and saved Jun himself before he had taken that hit.
They silently followed the pair, but when Jun came into sight, Yokoyama was already too close to Ohno, holding him at knife point, and once again they couldn’t do anything. Sho had somehow come up with a plan as they watched Ohno slowly begin to break down as he leaned over Jun’s motionless body, completely helpless in Yokoyama’s revenge. The archer took off in one direction and Aiba went in the other, surrounding the three ninja, and Nino slowly began to sneak up behind Yokoyama, who was too focused on the pair of lovers to notice the soundless attack.
Sho had taken on the responsibility of killing Yokoyama from a distance, but he had to wait until Nino was close enough to stop the knife from accidentally injuring Ohno more than it already had.
Once he was near enough, Sho held the needle between his fingers, which were shaking, and prayed that his aim was correct, since he only had one chance.
But his aim was right on, and it entered Yokoyama’s temple accurately. Nino was already there, grabbing the imposter, who had died as soon as the needle hit him, and slowly reached forward to remove the blade pressing at Ohno’s neck with an evident sigh.
Before he had even flung the body over, Aiba was already out of the bushes, rushing forward to exam Jun, who had started to shake uncontrollably. Pulling something out of his pouch, Aiba began trying to shove it into Jun’s mouth, but as Sho rushed to help the reforming group, it was evident that Jun was past controlling his own body functions. The archer’s heart raced as he forced Jun’s shoulder into the ground with all of his might, helping Aiba as he continued to try to save him.
Once he became limp, though, Aiba stood, only sparing the unconscious ninja a serious look before he turned his attention to Ohno and Nino, who were both desperately trying to stop blood from coming out of the cut on his abdomen.
Sho could hear Leader whispering about Jun, even though he was covered in sweat and looking just as pale as he counterpart, but he would no doubt be unconscious too in just a few more seconds. So Sho turned back to Jun, making sure that Ohno knew they were taking care of his lover just as avidly as they were trying to help him.
But Jun seemed to be dead and once Sho saw Ohno’s eyes close, he frantically relayed the message to Aiba. Nino was holding back tears as he demanded an outcome from the herbalist, who was the only level-headed person present right now.
“Don’t worry,” he said calmly, dropping his hand heavily onto Nino’s shoulder. “That’s supposed to happen.”
“What’s supposed to happen?” Nino replied hysterically. “He’s not supposed to be breathing?!”
Aiba shook him harshly. “Calm down, Nino. It’s the herb I gave him. It’ll put his body in a state of low functioning, almost like he died. Except he’ll wake up in two days, hopefully after I can get some antidote into him.”
Nino closed his eyes and Sho felt himself let out an oversized sigh of relief. He had always trusted Aiba, but it killed him sometimes to have to watch something like that and not know what was happening.
“I’ll take care of Jun later, right now we need to get Oh-chan back,” the herbalist said seriously and Nino nodded, following Aiba’s direction to pick up Leader’s legs as the bigger man held him up under the arms.
Turning back to Jun, who looked like he was caught in a serene sleep, Sho began to gently maneuver him around so that he could lift him onto his back.
Following a few feet behind Aiba and Nino, who were moving Ohno carefully but as fast as they could, Arashi slowly made their way back to the Main Building.
Once they arrived, they were met by a young man who looked at them in horror, immediately running towards the medical wing, and by the time the group arrived at the nearest treatment room, it was prepared to be used.
Aiba and Nino laid Ohno down onto a clean futon and the healer promptly started removing the makeshift bandage around Leader’s wound, telling the boy that had followed them to get him some clean bindings and a bottle of antiseptic.
Nino promptly came over to Sho and helped him drop Jun to the floor, unable to do anything else but place the lanky body on a futon next to where their captain was being treated.
It took hours, Sho and Nino watching from the sidelines and jumping to attention only when Aiba demanded something new, but finally Aiba sighed and finished tying off the white bandages wrapped around Ohno’s stomach. The blood had already created a red spot over the cut.
But it hadn’t been big, just deep, Aiba had said, even though neither of the other Arashi members was sure what that implied. Despite having his skin sewn shut and treated with alcohol, Ohno didn’t move at all as Aiba worked, lost to unconsciousness.
After he slowly pulled the blanket over the top of Ohno, obviously leaving him to rest, Aiba stared down at him with glassy eyes for a few seconds, swallowing loudly. He hesitantly turned to Nino and Sho, who were watching him with wide eyes.
Aiba averted his gaze back to Ohno once he saw them, and sighed.
“It’s the same as Sho-chan was. If he survives through the night, he’ll probably be okay.”
The rest of the sentence was left unsaid, which was fine by Sho because he didn’t want to think about Leader dying.
The room was quiet and still as Aiba continued to stare at Ohno and the other two stared at him in turn.
Sho wasn’t sure how long it stayed like that, but eventually Aiba took a deep breath and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I’m going to go make an antidote for Jun-kun. I should be back before the morning, though.”
Nino nodded and then pressed his head into Sho’s shoulder. The archer pulled him close, and he knew that his boyfriend was trying his best to hold back his tears as they helplessly watched Aiba take care of their two dear friends.
The herbalist dragged his feet as he left the room, not bothering to give the pair another look.
+++
When Ohno woke up the first time, Nino was seated at his side, Jun laid out on his other, and Sho was right next to his boyfriend with his arm around the smaller man’s shoulder. They had been watching the unconscious ninja the whole night, even when Aiba had come back in with a bowl in his hand and injected his antidote in various parts of Jun’s body. He had said that it wouldn’t be effective until Jun woke up, which the other Arashi members had already realized, since the poison wasn’t moving through his veins either right now.
Aiba had warned them that Jun would probably be in a lot of pain until the antidote started working, and would likely start flailing around, just like before he had taken Aiba’s herb. It was still half a day until he was due to wake up, though, so Sho and Nino were focusing their attention on Ohno, who’s condition had gotten a little worse during the course of the night, but started to look better by mid morning the next day.
Sho was holding onto Nino’s hand as the younger ninja stared at Leader blankly. He was exhausted--they both were--but he hadn’t slept at all the night before, and without Nino taking a break, Sho hadn’t either. They both just watched patiently and the archer was beginning to fully understand exactly what he had put Nino through after the attack on the village.
It had started out with a twitch and Nino was immediately leaning forward, ready to take action at any second.
Sho was monitoring the situation intently too, but he was still surprised when Ohno’s eyes popped open, his breath becoming heavier and more ragged than when he had been in the throes of sleep just seconds earlier.
As he tried to sit up, Nino pushed him back down immediately and Sho was simply watching to make sure that he wasn’t too rough with the injured man.
“Where’s Jun?” Ohno asked in a hoarse voice, his eyes staring wildly into Nino’s, attentive even though he had been severely injured.
“Leader, if you don’t lay the fuck back down-“ Nino started sharply, pushing on the older man’s arms as hard as he could. At the ninja’s sharp tone Ohno followed his direction, even though he was still looking at him with pleading eyes and waiting for his question to be answered.
“He’s right next to you, Leader,” Sho said in a gentler voice, pointing to the immobile body of the illusionist on Ohno’s other side.
Ohno slowly turned his head to look at Jun and then tentatively lifted his arm-- although it seemed like he had a hard time doing so-- and touched Jun’s cheek lightly.
“Is he…?”
After hearing Ohno’s tiny voice, which sounded like he was going to break down any second, Sho couldn’t bring himself to actually answer the open ended question.
But Nino forced a smile, even though Sho could immediately tell that he was on the verge of tears himself, but trying to put on a tough front in order to comfort Ohno.
“Aiba says he’ll be fine. So don’t worry Oh-chan.”
Sho knew that Aiba had said no such thing. The herbalist had admitted that he didn’t know if his strategy would work, since he had never tried it or heard of such a thing before, but they would promptly find out once Jun’s body came out of its comatose state. In fact, Aiba was out right now, talking with Ken and trying to figure out if there was another plan they could try to implement as a backup to save him.
Leader turned back to the pair leaning over him, and Sho had to avert his eyes to the ground at Ohno’s hopeful expression.
“Really Kazu?” he asked softly.
Nino leaned forward and gave Ohno a smile, even though Sho could see water threatening to spill down his cheeks, and touched the older man’s forehead gently, nodding.
“Yeah, by the time you wake back up maybe he’ll be better too…”
Sho squeezed Nino’s hand as his own eyes closed tightly, unable to deal with the fact that Nino was taking quite a risk by telling Leader these hopeful lies. But it was true that the swordmaster needed to go back to sleep to recover properly and he wouldn’t until he thought that Jun would be okay, even if he wasn’t.
Unable to keep himself awake any longer and with no more words said, Ohno’s eyes fluttered closed again, a content look on his face. Nino immediately turned back to Sho and buried his head in his chest, sobbing and softly pleading that everything would be okay.
+++
After finding out that Ohno was recovering and that there was still nothing he could do about Jun, Nino eventually fell asleep against Sho’s chest and he carefully held him, unable to let himself do the same.
Aiba returned with some dinner, looking as tired as Sho felt. As the two nibbled at the rice balls, Sho not tasting anything just knowing that he needed to get something down, Aiba explained that Ken didn’t have any more ideas. They would just have to hope that Aiba’s plan would work or that at least there was enough time for him to treat Jun as he usually would have and that Yokoyama had misjudged the time he had left.
If Aiba’s calculations were correct, Jun should be waking up within the next hour, so the herbalist stayed around, leaning on Sho’s other side, and they continued to wait, the thing that Sho was slowly coming to loathe.
He gently ran his fingers through Nino’s hair as he continued to whisper with Aiba about what Jun’s odds were and what they should with him once he came back to life. The healer seemed prepared for anything and the room was filled with various supplies, most of which had been brought in over the course of the last twenty four hours. There was nothing to do besides remain in their positions staring at Jun over Ohno.
Aiba explained a pain killer he was going to use, which was injected into the skin through a pad, made up of a certain kind of leaf that had hundreds of tiny points that would push past the first layer of skin and allow the medicine to be administered quickly. About halfway through his explanation, Jun’s body started to violently shake, even though his eyes hadn’t opened yet.
Aiba practically jumped across the expanse to him and Sho quickly followed, moving his boyfriend onto the ground as gently as he could. He approached Jun on the opposite side that Aiba was on, holding down his shoulders firmly and staring as Jun’s eyes slowly started to open, even though it seemed like it was taking all of his energy to do just that.
“Jun, Jun, it’s me,” Aiba said gently as he grabbed the younger man’s face and turned it towards him, trying to get him to focus on something. “Can you hear me?”
He seemed to be attempting to look at Aiba, even though his whole body was still shaking under the two pairs of hands, and although his progress wasn’t so good, Sho thought that was a positive sign. Even though it didn’t really indicate that the antidote was actually working.
“Jun, I’m going to give you this pain killer, okay?” Aiba softly said as he pressed the leaf, which looked more like a bandage than anything, to the side of his neck, away from the infected wound. “It’s really strong, so you probably won’t be able to move much, but it’ll make you feel better really quickly.”
He opened his mouth-Sho thought maybe he wanted to say something. But no words came out and instead Jun’s head thrashed back and his features twisted in anguish as he was hit with another wave of pain.
As the healer had said before, it took less than a full minute for Jun’s body to suddenly become limp and Aiba leaned back with a sigh as the pain medication took effect.
Instead of falling back to sleep, though, Jun watched Aiba with half lidded eyes. It seemed like he was unable to move his head, since he only shifted his eyes to Sho sluggishly in order to get his attention when Aiba stood and walked over to the organized supplies in a corner.
Sho tried to comfort him by brushing his hair out of his face, which was soaked in sweat, and after a second of close attention he noticed Jun’s lips barely moving. The air coming in and out of his mouth was raspy, dry, and labored, but otherwise there was no sound. Sho leaned forward just to be sure, but it was quite clear that Jun was unable to talk in his current condition.
His lips were still moving, though, and after Sho watched them for a second, he realized that he was mouthing only two syllables: Ohno.
“He’s right there, Jun,” Sho said slowly as he pointed at the captain, staring into Jun’s eyes and trying to discern if what he had picked up was correct or not. Jun’s pupils slowly moved in the indicated direction, but he couldn’t twist his head, so Sho tentatively did it for him, even though he wasn’t sure if Aiba would get mad at him for his actions or not.
Taking a deep breath, as if relieved that Ohno was so close, Jun closed his eyes for a second, then forced them open again, still unable to get more than halfway. Then he pointedly looked at Ohno’s hand, which was sprawled out between the two injured ninja, and then at his own laying at his side. Sho followed his gaze and noticed Jun’s forefinger twitching just barely.
Standing, he walked around the bottom of Jun’s futon, then tenderly picked up his hand, watching the poisoned ninja once again to make sure he was following what Jun wanted him to do. He slowly brought it closer to Ohno, careful that he didn’t hurt him, and then pulled Leader’s arm a little farther to intertwine the fingers together.
“Is that okay?” he asked with a tiny smile, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time that Jun would touch the man he was so deeply in love with.
Jun’s lips were trying to turn up in a smile, even though his face was numb, and he mouthed what Sho thought was thank you. The archer own smile widened and he nodded, then moved out of the way as Aiba returned with an armful of bandages and various medical equipment. Jun promptly fell back asleep as the herbalist began examining him, double checking his condition and all of the wounds that littered his body.
+++
Kame had come in to take a report of the attack only an hour after Arashi had arrived at the Main Building following the incident, and Nino had venomously told him here Yokoyama’s body could be found in the forest. After that, the missions ninja had promptly left them alone, knowing that two of their members were in serious conditions.
He had come back the next evening, right after Jun had woken up and then promptly returned to unconsciousness, and this time he had his three roommates in tow.
They had only come in the room for a moment, to witness the conditions of their friends, and then Sho talked to them in the hallway, since Nino was still asleep next to Ohno.
“I can’t believe it… Yokoyama…” Yamapi started right off, dropping his head into his hands.
“We just got out a meeting with Jyani,” Kame explained with a bitter look. “We told him everything we could about him, but even then we didn’t come up with much. I didn’t see this coming at all…”
Kouki patted him on the shoulder and rubbed his back lightly, looking just as upset even though he wasn’t as close to Jun and Ohno as the rest of them were.
“None of us did. Don’t worry about,” Sho said lamely, trying to force a smile. “I’m not sure there was anything we could have done…”
The group was shrouded in silence, each of them uncertain of what they could do between them to help their friends.
“Jyani said to tell you he was going to come. To check on them,” Touma said suddenly.
“Here?” Sho asked, somewhat incredulous, since he almost never saw Jyani out of his reception rooms. It made sense, since Ohno was like a son to him, but Sho had never heard of the village head coming to see Ohno when Sho had been the one injured with him.
The four men around him nodded with various timings, but didn’t offer anything else.
“What did Aiba say?” Kame asked, although he obviously had some apprehensions about finding out the answer. “Are they going to be okay?”
Sho swallowed.
“It looks like Ohno will probably recover. But we still don’t know about Jun yet.” It was hard to tell with the way he was sedated whether his condition was improving or not.
Touma closed his eyes at the response and Yamapi looked distraught as he grabbed onto his partner’s sleeve with a tight fist. Kame and Kouki were silent, too, but looked just as distressed at the news.
“It would be best if you checked back in at least a few more hours, or even the morning. We won’t know more until then,” he explained in a sober tone.
Unable to make light talk of anything else, the four other ninja remained quiet for a few minutes, then hesitantly said goodnight and Sho returned to his friends’ side inside of the medical room. He took a blanket from one of the empty beds and dragged it over to place it on top of Nino, who hadn’t woken from his slumber during the events of the last hour.
“Sho-chan, you should get some rest too,” Aiba said sympathetically. He was next to Jun, wiping some sweat off of his face, a fresh bandage around his throat.
But Sho simply sat down and leaned against the wall at Jun’s feet, watching his friend work.
After Aiba was finished, he returned the items he’d been using to the corner and plopped down next to Sho.
The archer wanted to turn to him and ask once more if Jun would be okay, if Ohno would be okay, and they could be together like they’d been struggling to since Jun had arrived at the village. He wanted to ask if everything would be salvageable, even after they were confronted with Jyani, who would no doubt reprimand Ohno for saving Jun when he should have reported the traitor immediately.
But he didn’t.
He didn’t want to put more pressure on Aiba than he was already carrying. Several people had come to ask his personal opinion on the matter, friends as well as support ninja, and although Sho had tried to curb as many of these visitors as possible, Aiba would simply force a smile and reiterate the same thing he had told all the previous people, asking them to check back later.
So instead of breaking down, Sho patted him on the shoulder and thanked him for his hard work with a genuine smile, knowing that they probably wouldn’t be where they were now without the herbalist’s expertise.
Aiba turned to him and smiled back, but his eyes immediately scrunched closed and silent tears were pouring out of them, his body beginning to shake from having to hold back his emotions the entire time. Sho pulled him close, like he had with Nino earlier, and allowed Aiba to get out everything that had been pent up since they had discovered the attack. In another minute the front of his shirt was wet and Aiba was hiccupping, but slowly calming down.
A soft moan came from Ohno and it was almost as if the emotional interlude had never happened. As he wiped the moisture from his face, Aiba crawled over to the swordsman, who was slowly opening his eyes, much calmer than the last time he had woken up, and Sho leaned forward too, but didn’t approach the futon, opting to stay out of Aiba’s way.
“Oh-chan?” he asked tentatively, feeling the captain’s head as his eyes fluttered. “How do you feel? Are you in pain?”
“Aiba…chan?” Ohno said in draw out syllables, then immediately turned his head to where his hands were connected with Jun’s, the illusionist’s head still facing his even though he was once again passed out.
“Does it hurt anywhere, Oh-chan?” Aiba asked again, moving in to examine the older man’s eyes and then pulling back the futon to examine the bandages around his middle.
“My stomach,” he replied immediately, but obviously not very worried about it, instead running his fingers across the limp hand in his own and staring at Jun’s face. “And my neck.”
“Do you need any medicine for it?” Aiba inquired, covering the older man with the futon again and then looking at the back of his head, although he didn’t touch anything there. If Sho remembered correctly, when Aiba had treated that knife wound, he had said it wasn’t anything serious, although he still needed to watch it for complications. But Ohno seemed to be moving fine, and he was awake again so soon, which Sho convinced himself was good news.
“No, I’m fine.”
The room was silent as Aiba backed off, not finding anything wrong with the older man, but Ohno didn’t fall back asleep and instead just laid there, looking at Jun’s face somewhere between worried about his condition and relieved that he wasn’t dead.
“How about something to eat?” Aiba offered in a pseudo cheery voice, standing to walk to the door to catch someone to bring them a bowl of soup.
“No, I’m fine,” Ohno repeated halfheartedly, but after Aiba gave directions to the young man monitoring the medical wing, he smiled at Leader and shook his head.
“If you can get it down, you’ll eat it,” he said firmly, but was still grinning.
Ohno didn’t argue with the other ninja, just slowly began looking around the room, noticing Sho sitting by his legs and Nino still asleep at his side. He seemed dazed, which wasn’t anything unusual, but calm and content at the same time. Sho thought an emotion like that was weird to have in this situation, especially because he hadn’t been given any medication for his pain.
He swallowed, but he knew he should warn the captain before anything unexpected happened.
“Jyani said he was going to come by…”
Ohno suddenly looked at him and his face shifted into a more serious expression.
Although not entirely sure of what Jyani was going to say, Sho assumed it had something to do with the fact that Ohno saved Jun instead of following the proper protocol. Which would have been taking out Yokoyama and then seeking aid to help find Jun instead of allowing the traitor to do what he wanted. Sho hoped the consequences would be the same as what happened with him and Nino, that Jyani would only make them privately restate their vows to him and the village and leave it at that… But somehow he thought what had occurred was a much bigger offense than simply falling in love.
Leader swallowed and then gave Sho a gentle smile.
“Okay.”
As he raised his eyebrow, Sho’s look turned sober. Maybe Ohno didn’t understand the full weight of the implication of Jyani coming out here.
“He’ll probably be upset…” he added, trying to make his friend understand.
But Ohno only sighed and continued to look content with the situation.
“I know what I’m going to say to him.”
His brow creased, unsure how Ohno had already come up with a plan to take care of the strict village leader and hoped the older man wasn’t going to say anything too rash. They weren’t even sure of what Jyani was going to say, after all.
Before Sho could give Ohno any advice or warnings, though, the boy returned with a bowl of soup, which he gingerly handed to Aiba, who had stayed out of the conversation. A message came with the food, though, that Jyani had discovered that Leader was awake already and was preparing to visit him momentarily.
+++
A/N: I feel like I need to give out a few apologies. First, I'm sorry for killing Yoko. T__T And Kanjani. TTT____TTT I hope you guys can forgive me. This story is a lot more depressing than I remembered writing it. Also, I'm sorry for not really resolving that much from the cliff hanger at the last chapter. >_> But at least I updated quickly...? I suppose you guys would rather see the outcome of this than the oneshot I was working on, right?
Well, life is good for me at the moment. Summer vacation is coming up at the end of July, so hopefully I'll get some things done. I will be posting the prizes for my contest as they finish up, so you might actually be getting more than one update a week! Sometime!
Chapter twenty-six (final)
Rating: PG13 (violence)
Pairing: Jun/Ohno, Sho/Nino
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: twenty-five
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?
Part 1: Shinobu Ishi ( Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four, Chapter five, Chapter six, Chapter seven)
Part 2: Shinobu Kokoro ( Chapter eight, Chapter nine, Chapter ten, Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen)
Part 3: Shinobu Kanjyo ( Chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen, Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty, Chapter twenty-one, Chapter twenty-two, Chapter twenty-three, Chapter twenty-four
When Ohno passed out, Sho wasn’t sure which of his friends he should be more worried about.
He was trying to monitor Jun after Aiba had suddenly moved over to Ohno, leaving the younger man simply lying on the ground even though he seemed to be on the verge of death. But when Jun’s body stopped shaking, Sho leaned over him to find out if he was still conscious or not. When he realized that he wasn’t, he moved his cheek over Jun’s mouth to see if he was breathing.
When Sho couldn’t feel any air passing through his lips, he started to panic, immediately feeling Jun’s neck, on the side that wasn’t swollen and bright red, trying to find a pulse.
But as soon as he had told that to Aiba just a second ago, the herbalist didn’t respond, caught up in examining Ohno’s wound and trying to stop any bleeding that he could.
“Aiba-“ Sho started again in a tense voice, louder than he probably should have been. He was worried for both of them, but Ohno’s chest was still haphazardly rising and falling, proof that he was still alive, if barely more so than Jun.
Maybe Aiba knew that there was no hope for Jun so he had moved on to Ohno to save him before it was too late.
Sho’s eyes were filling with tears as he looked down at Jun’s pale face again and Nino was barely holding himself together as well.
“Aiba,” Nino whined in a quiet tone, tugging on the herbalist’s sleeve, obviously asking about Jun, if he was going to be okay or if they really had arrived too late.
It didn’t seem like only an hour ago that their lives had been going on as usual. Nino and Sho had just left the general store after buying some supplies for the mission they were scheduled to leave on in the morning when they had run into Kame and Kouki. The two ninja were chatting about Ohno, so Nino immediately stopped and interrupted their conversation, asking if something was wrong with the captain. Kame explained that Kouki had met with Jun that afternoon and then Ohno only a few minutes ago, and that the swordsman had been acting more rushed than they had ever seen him before. After Kouki reiterated the words Jun had asked him to pass on, both Sho and Nino thought that was strange. Jun was more likely to drag Leader off himself rather than pass on a message. Together they headed in the direction of the forest to catch up with the pair, even though Nino only had a general guess as to where they would be.
On their way they met Aiba, who was headed in a similar direction, and he had explained that he was worried over Jun being out instead of resting. He had gone to Mao’s house looking for him and had heard a similarly strange story from her.
The trio had rushed to the line of trees together, their destination the fallen log that Jun had told Nino he was using as the place to confess to Ohno, even though none of them were sure that it was the area that Ohno had been headed only a few minutes before them. They weren’t sure anything was wrong, either, but if they were overreacting, they would probably only walk in on the two making out, which Nino had teased would be good material for making them blush later.
But it turned out they were right in their unease. They had come across the scene right as Ohno had been attacked by Yokoyama and was struggling to walk further into the trees, away from the clearing.
Even upon witnessing their wounded Leader, none of them interrupted. Yokoyama was making threats about Jun, and Sho knew that Ohno would have killed any of them if they had cut in before their comrade’s whereabouts were known. Otherwise the swordmaster would have already taken out Yokoyama and saved Jun himself before he had taken that hit.
They silently followed the pair, but when Jun came into sight, Yokoyama was already too close to Ohno, holding him at knife point, and once again they couldn’t do anything. Sho had somehow come up with a plan as they watched Ohno slowly begin to break down as he leaned over Jun’s motionless body, completely helpless in Yokoyama’s revenge. The archer took off in one direction and Aiba went in the other, surrounding the three ninja, and Nino slowly began to sneak up behind Yokoyama, who was too focused on the pair of lovers to notice the soundless attack.
Sho had taken on the responsibility of killing Yokoyama from a distance, but he had to wait until Nino was close enough to stop the knife from accidentally injuring Ohno more than it already had.
Once he was near enough, Sho held the needle between his fingers, which were shaking, and prayed that his aim was correct, since he only had one chance.
But his aim was right on, and it entered Yokoyama’s temple accurately. Nino was already there, grabbing the imposter, who had died as soon as the needle hit him, and slowly reached forward to remove the blade pressing at Ohno’s neck with an evident sigh.
Before he had even flung the body over, Aiba was already out of the bushes, rushing forward to exam Jun, who had started to shake uncontrollably. Pulling something out of his pouch, Aiba began trying to shove it into Jun’s mouth, but as Sho rushed to help the reforming group, it was evident that Jun was past controlling his own body functions. The archer’s heart raced as he forced Jun’s shoulder into the ground with all of his might, helping Aiba as he continued to try to save him.
Once he became limp, though, Aiba stood, only sparing the unconscious ninja a serious look before he turned his attention to Ohno and Nino, who were both desperately trying to stop blood from coming out of the cut on his abdomen.
Sho could hear Leader whispering about Jun, even though he was covered in sweat and looking just as pale as he counterpart, but he would no doubt be unconscious too in just a few more seconds. So Sho turned back to Jun, making sure that Ohno knew they were taking care of his lover just as avidly as they were trying to help him.
But Jun seemed to be dead and once Sho saw Ohno’s eyes close, he frantically relayed the message to Aiba. Nino was holding back tears as he demanded an outcome from the herbalist, who was the only level-headed person present right now.
“Don’t worry,” he said calmly, dropping his hand heavily onto Nino’s shoulder. “That’s supposed to happen.”
“What’s supposed to happen?” Nino replied hysterically. “He’s not supposed to be breathing?!”
Aiba shook him harshly. “Calm down, Nino. It’s the herb I gave him. It’ll put his body in a state of low functioning, almost like he died. Except he’ll wake up in two days, hopefully after I can get some antidote into him.”
Nino closed his eyes and Sho felt himself let out an oversized sigh of relief. He had always trusted Aiba, but it killed him sometimes to have to watch something like that and not know what was happening.
“I’ll take care of Jun later, right now we need to get Oh-chan back,” the herbalist said seriously and Nino nodded, following Aiba’s direction to pick up Leader’s legs as the bigger man held him up under the arms.
Turning back to Jun, who looked like he was caught in a serene sleep, Sho began to gently maneuver him around so that he could lift him onto his back.
Following a few feet behind Aiba and Nino, who were moving Ohno carefully but as fast as they could, Arashi slowly made their way back to the Main Building.
Once they arrived, they were met by a young man who looked at them in horror, immediately running towards the medical wing, and by the time the group arrived at the nearest treatment room, it was prepared to be used.
Aiba and Nino laid Ohno down onto a clean futon and the healer promptly started removing the makeshift bandage around Leader’s wound, telling the boy that had followed them to get him some clean bindings and a bottle of antiseptic.
Nino promptly came over to Sho and helped him drop Jun to the floor, unable to do anything else but place the lanky body on a futon next to where their captain was being treated.
It took hours, Sho and Nino watching from the sidelines and jumping to attention only when Aiba demanded something new, but finally Aiba sighed and finished tying off the white bandages wrapped around Ohno’s stomach. The blood had already created a red spot over the cut.
But it hadn’t been big, just deep, Aiba had said, even though neither of the other Arashi members was sure what that implied. Despite having his skin sewn shut and treated with alcohol, Ohno didn’t move at all as Aiba worked, lost to unconsciousness.
After he slowly pulled the blanket over the top of Ohno, obviously leaving him to rest, Aiba stared down at him with glassy eyes for a few seconds, swallowing loudly. He hesitantly turned to Nino and Sho, who were watching him with wide eyes.
Aiba averted his gaze back to Ohno once he saw them, and sighed.
“It’s the same as Sho-chan was. If he survives through the night, he’ll probably be okay.”
The rest of the sentence was left unsaid, which was fine by Sho because he didn’t want to think about Leader dying.
The room was quiet and still as Aiba continued to stare at Ohno and the other two stared at him in turn.
Sho wasn’t sure how long it stayed like that, but eventually Aiba took a deep breath and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I’m going to go make an antidote for Jun-kun. I should be back before the morning, though.”
Nino nodded and then pressed his head into Sho’s shoulder. The archer pulled him close, and he knew that his boyfriend was trying his best to hold back his tears as they helplessly watched Aiba take care of their two dear friends.
The herbalist dragged his feet as he left the room, not bothering to give the pair another look.
+++
When Ohno woke up the first time, Nino was seated at his side, Jun laid out on his other, and Sho was right next to his boyfriend with his arm around the smaller man’s shoulder. They had been watching the unconscious ninja the whole night, even when Aiba had come back in with a bowl in his hand and injected his antidote in various parts of Jun’s body. He had said that it wouldn’t be effective until Jun woke up, which the other Arashi members had already realized, since the poison wasn’t moving through his veins either right now.
Aiba had warned them that Jun would probably be in a lot of pain until the antidote started working, and would likely start flailing around, just like before he had taken Aiba’s herb. It was still half a day until he was due to wake up, though, so Sho and Nino were focusing their attention on Ohno, who’s condition had gotten a little worse during the course of the night, but started to look better by mid morning the next day.
Sho was holding onto Nino’s hand as the younger ninja stared at Leader blankly. He was exhausted--they both were--but he hadn’t slept at all the night before, and without Nino taking a break, Sho hadn’t either. They both just watched patiently and the archer was beginning to fully understand exactly what he had put Nino through after the attack on the village.
It had started out with a twitch and Nino was immediately leaning forward, ready to take action at any second.
Sho was monitoring the situation intently too, but he was still surprised when Ohno’s eyes popped open, his breath becoming heavier and more ragged than when he had been in the throes of sleep just seconds earlier.
As he tried to sit up, Nino pushed him back down immediately and Sho was simply watching to make sure that he wasn’t too rough with the injured man.
“Where’s Jun?” Ohno asked in a hoarse voice, his eyes staring wildly into Nino’s, attentive even though he had been severely injured.
“Leader, if you don’t lay the fuck back down-“ Nino started sharply, pushing on the older man’s arms as hard as he could. At the ninja’s sharp tone Ohno followed his direction, even though he was still looking at him with pleading eyes and waiting for his question to be answered.
“He’s right next to you, Leader,” Sho said in a gentler voice, pointing to the immobile body of the illusionist on Ohno’s other side.
Ohno slowly turned his head to look at Jun and then tentatively lifted his arm-- although it seemed like he had a hard time doing so-- and touched Jun’s cheek lightly.
“Is he…?”
After hearing Ohno’s tiny voice, which sounded like he was going to break down any second, Sho couldn’t bring himself to actually answer the open ended question.
But Nino forced a smile, even though Sho could immediately tell that he was on the verge of tears himself, but trying to put on a tough front in order to comfort Ohno.
“Aiba says he’ll be fine. So don’t worry Oh-chan.”
Sho knew that Aiba had said no such thing. The herbalist had admitted that he didn’t know if his strategy would work, since he had never tried it or heard of such a thing before, but they would promptly find out once Jun’s body came out of its comatose state. In fact, Aiba was out right now, talking with Ken and trying to figure out if there was another plan they could try to implement as a backup to save him.
Leader turned back to the pair leaning over him, and Sho had to avert his eyes to the ground at Ohno’s hopeful expression.
“Really Kazu?” he asked softly.
Nino leaned forward and gave Ohno a smile, even though Sho could see water threatening to spill down his cheeks, and touched the older man’s forehead gently, nodding.
“Yeah, by the time you wake back up maybe he’ll be better too…”
Sho squeezed Nino’s hand as his own eyes closed tightly, unable to deal with the fact that Nino was taking quite a risk by telling Leader these hopeful lies. But it was true that the swordmaster needed to go back to sleep to recover properly and he wouldn’t until he thought that Jun would be okay, even if he wasn’t.
Unable to keep himself awake any longer and with no more words said, Ohno’s eyes fluttered closed again, a content look on his face. Nino immediately turned back to Sho and buried his head in his chest, sobbing and softly pleading that everything would be okay.
+++
After finding out that Ohno was recovering and that there was still nothing he could do about Jun, Nino eventually fell asleep against Sho’s chest and he carefully held him, unable to let himself do the same.
Aiba returned with some dinner, looking as tired as Sho felt. As the two nibbled at the rice balls, Sho not tasting anything just knowing that he needed to get something down, Aiba explained that Ken didn’t have any more ideas. They would just have to hope that Aiba’s plan would work or that at least there was enough time for him to treat Jun as he usually would have and that Yokoyama had misjudged the time he had left.
If Aiba’s calculations were correct, Jun should be waking up within the next hour, so the herbalist stayed around, leaning on Sho’s other side, and they continued to wait, the thing that Sho was slowly coming to loathe.
He gently ran his fingers through Nino’s hair as he continued to whisper with Aiba about what Jun’s odds were and what they should with him once he came back to life. The healer seemed prepared for anything and the room was filled with various supplies, most of which had been brought in over the course of the last twenty four hours. There was nothing to do besides remain in their positions staring at Jun over Ohno.
Aiba explained a pain killer he was going to use, which was injected into the skin through a pad, made up of a certain kind of leaf that had hundreds of tiny points that would push past the first layer of skin and allow the medicine to be administered quickly. About halfway through his explanation, Jun’s body started to violently shake, even though his eyes hadn’t opened yet.
Aiba practically jumped across the expanse to him and Sho quickly followed, moving his boyfriend onto the ground as gently as he could. He approached Jun on the opposite side that Aiba was on, holding down his shoulders firmly and staring as Jun’s eyes slowly started to open, even though it seemed like it was taking all of his energy to do just that.
“Jun, Jun, it’s me,” Aiba said gently as he grabbed the younger man’s face and turned it towards him, trying to get him to focus on something. “Can you hear me?”
He seemed to be attempting to look at Aiba, even though his whole body was still shaking under the two pairs of hands, and although his progress wasn’t so good, Sho thought that was a positive sign. Even though it didn’t really indicate that the antidote was actually working.
“Jun, I’m going to give you this pain killer, okay?” Aiba softly said as he pressed the leaf, which looked more like a bandage than anything, to the side of his neck, away from the infected wound. “It’s really strong, so you probably won’t be able to move much, but it’ll make you feel better really quickly.”
He opened his mouth-Sho thought maybe he wanted to say something. But no words came out and instead Jun’s head thrashed back and his features twisted in anguish as he was hit with another wave of pain.
As the healer had said before, it took less than a full minute for Jun’s body to suddenly become limp and Aiba leaned back with a sigh as the pain medication took effect.
Instead of falling back to sleep, though, Jun watched Aiba with half lidded eyes. It seemed like he was unable to move his head, since he only shifted his eyes to Sho sluggishly in order to get his attention when Aiba stood and walked over to the organized supplies in a corner.
Sho tried to comfort him by brushing his hair out of his face, which was soaked in sweat, and after a second of close attention he noticed Jun’s lips barely moving. The air coming in and out of his mouth was raspy, dry, and labored, but otherwise there was no sound. Sho leaned forward just to be sure, but it was quite clear that Jun was unable to talk in his current condition.
His lips were still moving, though, and after Sho watched them for a second, he realized that he was mouthing only two syllables: Ohno.
“He’s right there, Jun,” Sho said slowly as he pointed at the captain, staring into Jun’s eyes and trying to discern if what he had picked up was correct or not. Jun’s pupils slowly moved in the indicated direction, but he couldn’t twist his head, so Sho tentatively did it for him, even though he wasn’t sure if Aiba would get mad at him for his actions or not.
Taking a deep breath, as if relieved that Ohno was so close, Jun closed his eyes for a second, then forced them open again, still unable to get more than halfway. Then he pointedly looked at Ohno’s hand, which was sprawled out between the two injured ninja, and then at his own laying at his side. Sho followed his gaze and noticed Jun’s forefinger twitching just barely.
Standing, he walked around the bottom of Jun’s futon, then tenderly picked up his hand, watching the poisoned ninja once again to make sure he was following what Jun wanted him to do. He slowly brought it closer to Ohno, careful that he didn’t hurt him, and then pulled Leader’s arm a little farther to intertwine the fingers together.
“Is that okay?” he asked with a tiny smile, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time that Jun would touch the man he was so deeply in love with.
Jun’s lips were trying to turn up in a smile, even though his face was numb, and he mouthed what Sho thought was thank you. The archer own smile widened and he nodded, then moved out of the way as Aiba returned with an armful of bandages and various medical equipment. Jun promptly fell back asleep as the herbalist began examining him, double checking his condition and all of the wounds that littered his body.
+++
Kame had come in to take a report of the attack only an hour after Arashi had arrived at the Main Building following the incident, and Nino had venomously told him here Yokoyama’s body could be found in the forest. After that, the missions ninja had promptly left them alone, knowing that two of their members were in serious conditions.
He had come back the next evening, right after Jun had woken up and then promptly returned to unconsciousness, and this time he had his three roommates in tow.
They had only come in the room for a moment, to witness the conditions of their friends, and then Sho talked to them in the hallway, since Nino was still asleep next to Ohno.
“I can’t believe it… Yokoyama…” Yamapi started right off, dropping his head into his hands.
“We just got out a meeting with Jyani,” Kame explained with a bitter look. “We told him everything we could about him, but even then we didn’t come up with much. I didn’t see this coming at all…”
Kouki patted him on the shoulder and rubbed his back lightly, looking just as upset even though he wasn’t as close to Jun and Ohno as the rest of them were.
“None of us did. Don’t worry about,” Sho said lamely, trying to force a smile. “I’m not sure there was anything we could have done…”
The group was shrouded in silence, each of them uncertain of what they could do between them to help their friends.
“Jyani said to tell you he was going to come. To check on them,” Touma said suddenly.
“Here?” Sho asked, somewhat incredulous, since he almost never saw Jyani out of his reception rooms. It made sense, since Ohno was like a son to him, but Sho had never heard of the village head coming to see Ohno when Sho had been the one injured with him.
The four men around him nodded with various timings, but didn’t offer anything else.
“What did Aiba say?” Kame asked, although he obviously had some apprehensions about finding out the answer. “Are they going to be okay?”
Sho swallowed.
“It looks like Ohno will probably recover. But we still don’t know about Jun yet.” It was hard to tell with the way he was sedated whether his condition was improving or not.
Touma closed his eyes at the response and Yamapi looked distraught as he grabbed onto his partner’s sleeve with a tight fist. Kame and Kouki were silent, too, but looked just as distressed at the news.
“It would be best if you checked back in at least a few more hours, or even the morning. We won’t know more until then,” he explained in a sober tone.
Unable to make light talk of anything else, the four other ninja remained quiet for a few minutes, then hesitantly said goodnight and Sho returned to his friends’ side inside of the medical room. He took a blanket from one of the empty beds and dragged it over to place it on top of Nino, who hadn’t woken from his slumber during the events of the last hour.
“Sho-chan, you should get some rest too,” Aiba said sympathetically. He was next to Jun, wiping some sweat off of his face, a fresh bandage around his throat.
But Sho simply sat down and leaned against the wall at Jun’s feet, watching his friend work.
After Aiba was finished, he returned the items he’d been using to the corner and plopped down next to Sho.
The archer wanted to turn to him and ask once more if Jun would be okay, if Ohno would be okay, and they could be together like they’d been struggling to since Jun had arrived at the village. He wanted to ask if everything would be salvageable, even after they were confronted with Jyani, who would no doubt reprimand Ohno for saving Jun when he should have reported the traitor immediately.
But he didn’t.
He didn’t want to put more pressure on Aiba than he was already carrying. Several people had come to ask his personal opinion on the matter, friends as well as support ninja, and although Sho had tried to curb as many of these visitors as possible, Aiba would simply force a smile and reiterate the same thing he had told all the previous people, asking them to check back later.
So instead of breaking down, Sho patted him on the shoulder and thanked him for his hard work with a genuine smile, knowing that they probably wouldn’t be where they were now without the herbalist’s expertise.
Aiba turned to him and smiled back, but his eyes immediately scrunched closed and silent tears were pouring out of them, his body beginning to shake from having to hold back his emotions the entire time. Sho pulled him close, like he had with Nino earlier, and allowed Aiba to get out everything that had been pent up since they had discovered the attack. In another minute the front of his shirt was wet and Aiba was hiccupping, but slowly calming down.
A soft moan came from Ohno and it was almost as if the emotional interlude had never happened. As he wiped the moisture from his face, Aiba crawled over to the swordsman, who was slowly opening his eyes, much calmer than the last time he had woken up, and Sho leaned forward too, but didn’t approach the futon, opting to stay out of Aiba’s way.
“Oh-chan?” he asked tentatively, feeling the captain’s head as his eyes fluttered. “How do you feel? Are you in pain?”
“Aiba…chan?” Ohno said in draw out syllables, then immediately turned his head to where his hands were connected with Jun’s, the illusionist’s head still facing his even though he was once again passed out.
“Does it hurt anywhere, Oh-chan?” Aiba asked again, moving in to examine the older man’s eyes and then pulling back the futon to examine the bandages around his middle.
“My stomach,” he replied immediately, but obviously not very worried about it, instead running his fingers across the limp hand in his own and staring at Jun’s face. “And my neck.”
“Do you need any medicine for it?” Aiba inquired, covering the older man with the futon again and then looking at the back of his head, although he didn’t touch anything there. If Sho remembered correctly, when Aiba had treated that knife wound, he had said it wasn’t anything serious, although he still needed to watch it for complications. But Ohno seemed to be moving fine, and he was awake again so soon, which Sho convinced himself was good news.
“No, I’m fine.”
The room was silent as Aiba backed off, not finding anything wrong with the older man, but Ohno didn’t fall back asleep and instead just laid there, looking at Jun’s face somewhere between worried about his condition and relieved that he wasn’t dead.
“How about something to eat?” Aiba offered in a pseudo cheery voice, standing to walk to the door to catch someone to bring them a bowl of soup.
“No, I’m fine,” Ohno repeated halfheartedly, but after Aiba gave directions to the young man monitoring the medical wing, he smiled at Leader and shook his head.
“If you can get it down, you’ll eat it,” he said firmly, but was still grinning.
Ohno didn’t argue with the other ninja, just slowly began looking around the room, noticing Sho sitting by his legs and Nino still asleep at his side. He seemed dazed, which wasn’t anything unusual, but calm and content at the same time. Sho thought an emotion like that was weird to have in this situation, especially because he hadn’t been given any medication for his pain.
He swallowed, but he knew he should warn the captain before anything unexpected happened.
“Jyani said he was going to come by…”
Ohno suddenly looked at him and his face shifted into a more serious expression.
Although not entirely sure of what Jyani was going to say, Sho assumed it had something to do with the fact that Ohno saved Jun instead of following the proper protocol. Which would have been taking out Yokoyama and then seeking aid to help find Jun instead of allowing the traitor to do what he wanted. Sho hoped the consequences would be the same as what happened with him and Nino, that Jyani would only make them privately restate their vows to him and the village and leave it at that… But somehow he thought what had occurred was a much bigger offense than simply falling in love.
Leader swallowed and then gave Sho a gentle smile.
“Okay.”
As he raised his eyebrow, Sho’s look turned sober. Maybe Ohno didn’t understand the full weight of the implication of Jyani coming out here.
“He’ll probably be upset…” he added, trying to make his friend understand.
But Ohno only sighed and continued to look content with the situation.
“I know what I’m going to say to him.”
His brow creased, unsure how Ohno had already come up with a plan to take care of the strict village leader and hoped the older man wasn’t going to say anything too rash. They weren’t even sure of what Jyani was going to say, after all.
Before Sho could give Ohno any advice or warnings, though, the boy returned with a bowl of soup, which he gingerly handed to Aiba, who had stayed out of the conversation. A message came with the food, though, that Jyani had discovered that Leader was awake already and was preparing to visit him momentarily.
+++
A/N: I feel like I need to give out a few apologies. First, I'm sorry for killing Yoko. T__T And Kanjani. TTT____TTT I hope you guys can forgive me. This story is a lot more depressing than I remembered writing it. Also, I'm sorry for not really resolving that much from the cliff hanger at the last chapter. >_> But at least I updated quickly...? I suppose you guys would rather see the outcome of this than the oneshot I was working on, right?
Well, life is good for me at the moment. Summer vacation is coming up at the end of July, so hopefully I'll get some things done. I will be posting the prizes for my contest as they finish up, so you might actually be getting more than one update a week! Sometime!
Chapter twenty-six (final)