Partnership

 

Kazuo had been a field operative in the Guardian League for only a couple decades now – a short, insignificant time in the broader scope of eternity – and had been considered by his superiors to have shown a great deal of talent in completing his missions well. He had yet to be assigned a full-term Talent outpost, but he knew that realistically he wouldn't be getting one of those for another couple hundred years or so. Full-term Talent outposts were far more delicate matters and were left only to those who had already had a great deal of experience. Kazuo generally went in on the clean-up ops, taking out Fallen nests or going in to answer a distress call from someone who was on a full-term outpost.

 

This time, his mission had been to answer one such distress call.

 

The first indication that this wasn't a normal distress call came during his very short pre-op briefing, where he was introduced to a temporary partner. Typically, these missions were handled with just a single GLO coming in to help out with a full-term outpost. Whoever had sent in the distress call clearly was in deep trouble if they'd requested more than one back-up.

 

Kazuo had given his partner a short glance and had decided that the guy was all too serious; even if the missions themselves were important, it didn't mean that there wasn't room for at least a little fun-making. Taji – he learned his partner's name was – had the appearance of a stern soldier boy, back ramrod-stiff and expression emotionless as he accepted his orders with two-word answers, of which one was always “sir.” Well, Kazuo would put up with the guy; apparently, Taji had a good thirty-seven years of service on him.

 

Once orders had been issued, the two of them took off towards the location that the distress call had originated from. Kazuo hadn't missed the “don't you mess this up, newbie” look that Taji had shot him, which caused him to bristle slightly but only made him more determined to show this pompous jerk up.

 

They'd arrived to a battlefield that was already littered with the bloodied, dead bodies of a great number of Hellions – Kazuo hadn't ever seen that many in one place on any of his missions – strewn about the countryside field they'd been sent to. There were two dead Fallen not too far away from them, but no sign of either the GLO or his Talent. Taji had already bent down and was looking for a trail to follow, a gesture that made Kazuo grimace – Taji had seen something like this before. It made Kazuo feel a little bad about how he had initially sized up his current partner, but instead of dwelling on it, he too began looking around for any kind of signs to see what might have happened, or where the GLO had gone.

 

There was a trail of blood leading from the edge of the field, and perking up his ears, Kazuo thought he might have heard some distant shouts. Looking back to see if Taji had noticed them as well – which he had – their eyes met and with a split second of wordless understanding, both flew in the direction of the blood trail.

 

There were flashes of light in a grove of trees about a kilometer west of the field, and the unmistakable screeches of even more Hellions pierced the air. Whoever had made the distress call must have had a great deal of strength to be able to handle so many enemies at once, but there was no doubt in Kazuo's mind that the GLO was likely injured. Taji showed no sign of his own thoughts on the matter as they approached the ongoing skirmish in the trees, and Kazuo wondered if he had completely desensitized himself to such destruction and violence in his years as a field agent. Kazuo certainly hadn't – at least, not yet.

 

Kazuo winced when they finally caught sight of the GLO – the guy was covered in gashes that told of Hellion claws, and he was fending off two fully-invoked Fallen with a pair of short Japanese-style swords as the Talent he was protecting cowered behind him on the ground, the girl visibly shaking as she alternately put her fingers to her mouth and gripped the bark of the tree. The GLO's determined grimace turned into a look of surprise when he caught sight of his two back-ups, and with a shove, he threw his attackers off of him and nodded in their direction. One of the Fallen looked over its shoulder and muttered something in the Dark Tongue – likely a curse – when he saw Kazuo and Taji approach, and it then suddenly put its fingers to its mouth and whistled loudly.

 

Kazuo didn't wait for him to finish the tell-tale Hellion-summoning gesture before he dove in the direction of the Fallen, materializing his naginata in the process. He felt Taji just behind him, and saw out of the corner of his vision that his partner had landed next to the GLO and engaged him in a brief questioning of status. Kazuo ignored the conversation after that, keeping his attention on his current enemy.

 

While most descriptions of average Fallen described them as wild and viciously insane, Kazuo knew from experience that Fallen – in general – were rather intelligent beings. After all, they had once been of the Celestial realm, possibly even fellow Guardians. This particular Fallen was no different; it had already begun sizing up Kazuo from the moment their eyes met. The first swing of Kazuo's naginata had been parried, which Kazuo had expected from the start. The Fallen took a swing with its broad blade at his head – he dodged backwards, then moved in for a thrust that turned into a broad swipe as the Fallen dodged to the side. With some measure of satisfaction, Kazuo heard the Fallen's grunt of pain as the blade of his naginata scraped across its dark flesh. It wasn't a fatal blow, but it was first blood.

 

The Fallen was less than pleased with the gesture, and Kazuo noted with a little disappointment that the beast's movements had become more predictable with rage behind the swings. This would have a boring end, now that he had the advantage. Knocking the Fallen's blade aside with a sharp tap, Kazuo saw his opening and thrust the blade of his naginata deep into the Fallen's chest. Screeching, it writhed around the weapon before it turned back to its humanoid form and fell lifelessly to the ground.

 

Just in time, too – Kazuo heard the loud, shrieking yips of the approaching Hellions. Turning to see that Taji was still occupied with the other Fallen and that the GLO had moved to a short distance away behind a barrier – hopefully to keep the Talent in a safer spot and to take care of his own wounds – and realized that he was going to have to deal with the Hellions by himself for the time being, no matter how much he hated them. Nasty claws that dealt nasty wounds, fur and saliva that reeked of decay and rot and death, and maniacal gleams in their feral, glowing eyes; not a pretty sight. Kazuo wondered just what it was that this Talent had been capable of to attract such a great deal of attention.

 

Readying himself, the horde of Hellions thundered towards the small, battle-created clearing. With a summon of energy, Kazuo raised one hand forward, palm exposed, and shot an ice blast at the first group, then went in swinging after the second batch. So far, so good; he had been able to keep track of every Hellion's presence, noting that there were about thirty left. No, twenty-eight, he counted to himself as he beheaded one and then used his momentum from the swing to smash the wooden end of the naginata into another beast's eye hard enough that he was sure it went to its brain. It would be enough to down it, at any rate.

 

Kazuo had managed to drop the count down to thirteen when he heard another whistle from the Fallen that Taji was still entangled with. Barely suppressing a groan, he chanced a look in Taji's direction to see what was taking him so damn long in dispatching the Fallen, and hesitated when he realized that Taji wasn't fighting the same Fallen as he had been earlier. There were more of them, then; Kazuo knew they both would have to be more careful.

 

The hesitation cost him, however; he stumbled forward as a Hellion raked its claws across his back, the heavy blow stunning him for a moment. But he wasn't about to let Taji show him up, not yet. With a snarl, he turned and stabbed the naginata's blade into the Hellion's open mouth. A good twenty more Hellions were headed his way; he had to make sure he took down as many of the current batch before they arrived on the scene. He felt a few claws graze him, but ignored the small stings as he concentrated on just getting rid of as many of them as possible. Summoning more spirit into his hands, he changed his stance and began fighting one-handed with the naginata, using his free hand to freeze any Hellion that came close enough for him to touch.

 

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, he realized too late that a Hellion from behind the one he currently had his naginata embedded in had gotten impatient, leaping over its horde-member's corpse straight at Kazuo. He threw an arm up instinctively in defense, but before it could sink its outstretched claws into him, the Hellion shrieked and was thrown to the side in a bright burst of flame. Looking over, he saw that Taji had finally joined the fray of Hellions, having taken down what Kazuo hoped was the last of the Fallen. So, Taji's element was fire, he realized, and noted with a bit of wry amusement at the irony of the fact that their two elements were polar opposites. Regardless of that fact, Kazuo spared only a second to give Taji and appreciative nod before he turned back to the task, ducking a swipe from another Hellion's paw.

 

Kazuo heard the next horde of Hellions long before he saw them, but he hoped that with Taji's help, they could decimate their ranks quickly enough. In the midst of battle, Kazuo noticed that Taji's specialty seemed to deal with longer-ranged projectiles, as he was hanging along the outskirts of the confused huddle of Hellions and took them down one at a time with precise aim. Kazuo was distantly impressed; there weren't many GLOs these days that chose to focus their training on long-range weaponry because of its inherent drain on the Guardian's spirit. Taji must have built up his stamina in order to handle longer battles like these. And Kazuo was extremely grateful to find that their combined efforts were indeed effective in eliminating the Hellions; both of them finished off the last of the first batch.

 

Kazuo grinned over at Taji in the brief moment of reprieve before the second round came along.

 

Holding up all right there, partner?” he asked jovially. Taji merely grunted, expression not changing. Tough crowd. “Not the talking type, are ya?”

 

Head's up,” was all Taji said in reply as he fell into a stance beside Kazuo, the batch of ten Hellions nearly upon them.

 

Kazuo snorted as he brandished his weapon again, watching as Taji took down two of the charging Hellions with a quick flick of his wrist, letting fly two batches of fire-emblazoned throwing stars. He flew into the group swinging, smacking the first Hellion in his path away with the flat side of the blade to deal with later. When he first heard a called cue – “Back!” – from Taji's direction, he bristled slightly, but knew that Taji had a better angle on the battle from a distant position than he did in the middle. Ducking, he felt displaced air blow across his back as a Hellion nearly snagged his braid on its way over him. Kazuo finished it off with a forward thrust of the naginata into its spine, jerking the blade out of its back. After that first command, Kazuo quickly began to learn to listen to Taji's prompts; he hadn't even sensed that Hellion coming at him.

 

Between the two of them, they managed to drop the Hellions' number to five, and then when Kazuo finished off his current foe, he looked around to find that he was standing there alone with Taji, the ground littered with Hellion corpses.

 

Well,” Kazuo said, breathing heavily, “I guess that's the last of those nasty things.”

 

Taji grunted at him again before he turned and went in the direction of the GLO's barrier, and Kazuo sighed before he followed him. They'd made a pretty good team there, but he wished that Taji was at least a little more friendly. The barrier was just ahead, and Kazuo noted with some relief that the GLO had managed to calm the Talent girl down enough that she was even helping him bandage his injuries with strips of cloth torn from his shirt. The GLO acknowledged them with a nod as they approached.

 

Thank you,” he said. “I don't think I would've been able to handle them by myself without putting Minako at risk.” He motioned to the young girl, who sheepishly offered her own nod of thanks.

 

Hey, that's what we do best,” Kazuo replied with a grin, rubbing the back of his head.

 

Do you need us to send for a healer?” Taji asked.

 

I think I can take care of these myself. Did you get in contact with my partner?” the GLO asked, suddenly looking concerned. “My connection went dead before I could get the distress call through to him.”

 

Taji shook his head. “We didn't realize that there was a connection breach when you called us; we assumed he'd be here with you.”

 

Could you give him a head's up for me? Also, put in a word with Comm that we need some new gear – ours seems to have a few connection glitches.”

 

Kazuo noticed that the girl was staring at them with wide eyes through the entire exchange; she must not have known about the existence of any of these creatures until the attack. He felt a stab of pity for her, and as Taji and the GLO talked business, Kazuo knelt down in front of the girl with a soft smile.

 

Hey, you holding up okay?” he asked gently. “Must be a lot to take in, huh.”

 

The girl nodded, looking away with colored cheeks. Japanese girls were always the most shy out of every group of individuals he'd dealt with in this region. He resisted the urge to reach out and pat her head, when suddenly he felt a dark presence rise up behind him. Minako stiffened, eyes wide as her gaze shot to a place beyond Kazuo's shoulder.

 

Taji!” he called in warning, turning and rising to his feet, preparing to summon his naginata. He never got that far – stars sparked across his vision and blotted it out in darkness.

 

It couldn't have been more than a handful of seconds before Kazuo blinked his vision back into focus, realizing that he was laying some distance away on the ground with a splitting headache. Blood dribbled from the new cut above his right brow into his eye, which he closed to keep from stinging. He heard Minako's startled shriek, bringing the world to sharp focus as he shakily pushed himself to his feet just in time to see Taji's fire-stars miss their mark and leave him wide open as the new Fallen dove at him with a jagged short-blade. Kazuo didn't think – he just moved, hoping fervently that he was going to be fast enough. Knocking Taji out of the way, he landed on his feet and turned to face the Fallen, hands glowing with blue spirit in preparation to freeze the enemy.

 

It occurred to him when the blade painfully drove into his chest that he'd never planned on not taking the blow; he'd braced his feet instinctively to absorb the impact. Face-to-face with the smirking Fallen, Kazuo managed a half-grin before he reached forward and pressed his hand into the Fallen's chest. With a short cry, the Fallen's smirk barely disappeared into a look of surprise as it was encased in a thick barrier of ice, which shattered into a thousand smaller shards along with the Fallen a moment after.

 

Breathing heavily, Kazuo jerked the knife out of his chest, throwing it down at what barely remained of the Fallen with a satisfied smirk. But when he turned to check on Taji, he felt his knees buckle from under him as the pain finally hit. Hearing his name shouted from a great distance, he vaguely noticed that he never hit the ground, and saw Taji's blurred face floating over his own. Was that a worried expression he saw? From stoic-boy? The thought made him smile, even if he faintly could taste his own coppery blood.

 

It was his last thought before everything went dark – again.

 

It didn't seem like much time had passed when Kazuo fuzzily noticed that he felt breeze across his face, and that his entire body still hurt like hell. He could still taste blood, but it wasn't as bad this time around. His eyelids felt like leaden weights, but after some effort he managed to blink one of them open to find that his arms were draped over someone's strong shoulders, and that he was nestled between the outstretched wings on the back of another Guardian. By the wisps of black hair that flew in his face, he was surprised to realize that Taji was the one carrying him. The grips on his forearms tightened.

 

Hold still,” Kazuo heard Taji's stern voice order. There was an undercurrent of both fear and some relief in Taji's tone, which lent to a warm feeling in Kazuo's stomach. So the guy wasn't entirely stiff after all.

 

Yessir,” he drawled, wincing as a wave of sharp pain cut through his chest. “Are we there yet?”

 

Some of the tension bled from Taji's shoulders at the crack. “If you're up for joking, you'll make it,” Taji replied, almost managing to sound amused. Kazuo grinned.

 

Good, because I was starting to wonder if you were made of stone.”

 

Taji's shoulders stiffened again, and Kazuo suddenly felt guilty. “Just because I don't look like I'm bothered by gore doesn't mean that I'm not,” he replied. Kazuo was taken aback; Taji knew exactly what he was referring to. Kazuo opened his mouth to apologize, but Taji cut him off. “One thing you'll learn about the partnered distress responses, newbie, is the fact that you see a lot of that kind of thing.”

 

Kazuo scowled. “You're not that much older than I am,” he retorted.

 

No, but I'm also not on my first partnered mission.” Kazuo sighed; Taji was right. Being an arrogant twat about the situation would be counter-productive. Taji's next words, however, surprised him. “But I will say this – I'd take you over some of the other partners I've had in the past. Not all new GLOs have the kind of guts you showed there.” A pause, and then softly, “Thanks. I owe you one.”

 

Kazuo blinked. He didn't have anything to say to that, really. His initial measure of Taji had been completely off, he saw now. “N-Not a problem,” he stammered sheepishly. “It's part of the job description.”

 

Taji snorted, and Kazuo smiled; that was the closest thing to a chuckle he'd heard out of the guy. The small bit of pleasure didn't last long, however; Kazuo hissed as another wave of pain flared from the wound in his chest, stealing his breath. He squeezed his eyes shut against it, resting his forehead on Taji's back. Taji's grip on his forearms tightened and he seemed to tense again, and Kazuo felt air brush past his face a little faster.

 

Hang on,” he heard Taji say, the panic cracking his voice. “Just a little further; we're almost there. Just hang on.”

 

The pain intensified and pulled him into a world of gray before he could reassure Taji that he was just fine.

 

The rest of the trip back to headquarters had been a gray blur for Kazuo, and while he had faintly felt hands on him and heard the terse voices arguing above him, he couldn't seem to grasp what they were saying. All he could focus on was riding out the pain, but as that slowly faded, all that was left was the warm dark.

 

When the inky black receded, he slowly blinked – with both eyes – and realized that he was staring at a white ceiling. Part of him knew he was in the healers' ward, but his dulled mind and slurred thoughts kept him from fully realizing that until he saw the petite uniformed body of an assistant-healer next to him, reaching above him and adjusting something over his head. She looked down at him with a stunned blink before a bright smile lit her face.

 

Welcome back, Kazuo,” she said cheerily, finishing her adjustments above him before she snapped and a lightboard appeared in her hands. “How are you feeling?”

 

Kazuo frowned, noting that his chest still throbbed, but he didn't seem to care as much about it. “Better, I guess,” he said carefully, voice hoarse.

 

She nodded sympathetically. “The healer will be glad to know that you're awake; he wasn't expecting you to come around yet, with that nasty blow to your head and all.”

 

I'm just full of surprises,” Kazuo slurred with an impish grin. The assistant giggled as she left the room with a promise to return quickly.

 

You certainly are full of them,” a voice said from the side.

 

Kazuo jerked, startled, and then winced as the movement caused his wounds to protest. Rubbing his chest, he glared over at the offender, and was surprised to see who was sitting there. “Taji! Don't scare me like that,” he said. “Didn't even see you sitting there.”

 

The corner of Taji's lips curled into what could have been a smile – Kazuo couldn't tell. “Sorry about that.”

 

Sure you are.” Kazuo feigned indignation, but couldn't hold the pose for long as his chest started throbbing, causing him to grimace again. “Good gods, I thought these guys were good at healing this kind of stuff,” he said morosely.

 

You've only been here a matter of hours,” Taji replied. “The assistant just got you started on treatment when you decided to wake up ahead of schedule.”

 

Kazuo made a face. “Fine then, I'll just go back to sleep if I'm not wanted.”

 

Cut the act, Kazuo,” Taji said, rolling his eyes.

 

With a sigh, Kazuo carefully settled further back into the pillows. “You're no fun.”

 

Well, next time when you're the one bringing back a badly wounded comrade, let's see how fun you think it is,” Taji replied curtly.

 

Guilt was a vicious little creature, and Kazuo looked away sheepishly. “I'm sorry,” he whispered.

 

It was Taji's turn to sigh this time. “No, don't be. Just... be careful next time, okay? I don't want to have to do that again.”

 

Next time? Kazuo narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Taji, wondering why the guy was so confident that they'd actually end up being partnered again, and just how long he had really had been out of it if Taji had already filed a report.

 

Don't give me that look,” Taji said defensively. “Truth is, Andrei's been trying to find a permanent team to take care of these kinds of clean-up jobs. Apparently, this job had been under-ranked, foul-up in Comm. There should have been another team there with us.”

 

Kazuo raised an eyebrow. “Andrei? When'd you speak to him?”

 

He came in earlier, before you were awake – wanted to check in on you, and congratulate us. Looks like we've got the job.”

 

For someone who was used to having something to say to everything, Kazuo was surprised yet again and had no answer. He lost count of how many times he'd been at a loss for words on this mission. Instead, all he could manage was a disbelieving, “Huh.” And after a split second, with a mischievous grin, “So, that means you're stuck with me.”

 

Taji looked slightly worried, but then glared. “As if I can't handle a brat like you.”

 

Kazuo bristled, but the smile stayed in place. “I can be tamed with crackers, you know,” he said.

 

This time, Taji did laugh. Kazuo joined him – at least until his wounds started aching. “Ow,” he breathed, but was hard-pressed not to laugh harder at his own predicament.

 

Then stop laughing!” Taji replied through his own laughter.

 

Well, you started– ow!”

 

I can't help it!” Taji protested. “I thought of a trained parrot when you mentioned crackers!”

 

Kazuo wheezed, but couldn't stop. He threw his pillow at Taji. Even if it hurt to keep laughing, he was grateful for that moment. He knew this was going to be the beginning of a long road with his new friend, even if they were likely going to drive each other insane.