yay now is fighty time [video]

[letsgohurtpeople]

[He almost doesn't want to make the stupid video but he knows that, as much as he wants to, he can't just hide away until the next mission, ninja in, and start doing...whatever. Hero stuff. Whatever it is that heroes do.]

[God, he's done it this time, hasn't he? Gotten into yet more hero crap, and he doesn't even know these assholes. At least back home, he and the other Remedial kids are friends now. Sure, he's hoping to eventually use them in his whole quest for vengeance, but at this point, they'd probably help out with that willingly.]

[Now he's got to make nicey nice with a bunch of strangers, when it was already hard enough to do it the first time. And apparently he's not allowed to kill anybody if he joins up with their outfit. The only way to really face this threat to all their worlds is with this stupid team, and that means he's got to follow their stupid rules.]

[So it's a very cranky ninja that appears on screen. His face is cowled; the small bit of skin that's visible is a bright blue. Two pointy white horns jut out from the sides of his forehead, and his eyes glow with a menacing orange glow. Even though his face is cowled, the way his eyes are crinkled up make it clear he's scowling under there.]

[When he speaks, his voice is low and raspy. He sounds like the teenage boy he is, but definitely the kind of teenage boy that smokes six packs a day. Also the Joisey accent is pretty unmistakable.]

'Sup, losers. My name's Kyou Tanaka. I've been told there's some kind of cosmic whatever we've gotta stab repeatedly in the face.

Which is a good thing because apparently the morons in charge of this outfit won't let us stab anything else in the face.

So you're going to not be seeing me hanging around a lot. I say "not" on account of, y'know, ninja. But on the off chance you ever do see me, like when I move in for the ki - uh, punching, for the punching - don't shoot me or blow me up with butt lasers or anything. I can heal from it, but seeing as most of you can't heal when I inevitably throw a shuriken in your eye on sheer reflex, you should probably save us both the trouble.

[He pauses. Shit, what else is he supposed to say?]

I guess I'm supposed to tell you my "superhero" name. [Quotey fingers. He only has four fingers on each hand.] It's Murderizer McKillinstuff.

[Another pause.]

Just because I'm following your stupid no-killing rules doesn't mean I have to like it.

Comments

[bachido]

Thank you. That's very considerate.

[Kubo says it dryly, but with a bit of a smile. It's not like this person is aggressively mean, like Rico is or Azula was . . . he's just not going out of his way to be nice.

Kubo can get along with blunt people. His mother is - was - the bluntest person he's ever met, and he'll never stop missing her.]

Welcome to the Legion. My name is Kabutomushi Kubo. My superhero name is Paperboy.

[His shamisen is on his lap, and he lifts it into position to play a few notes and send some paper fluttering across the screen, folding itself into the shapes of shuriken.]

You said you had healing powers? What a great power to have. I wouldn't give up my paper magic, but I think my family would rather I had healing powers instead.

[letsgohurtpeople]

[The whole magical music thing is weird, but not really that weird. Even if not many people in his clan other than his fa -- other than him have powers, almost everyone at his school does.]

[So when he raises a quizzical eyebrow it's not because of Kubo's powers. It's how he seems to be saying...nice things? At him? Those things sound conversational. And nice. He's not used to nice and even with Amit and the others being all nice at him, it still hasn't lost its shock value.]

[Still, even if he's not used to it, he muddles on through, flexing some socialization muscles that he's still not used to using again, even despite his friends back home.]

Yeah. I guess. Not dying when you're stabbed in the kidney, always a plus.

[He shrugs. It keeps him alive. But it's not exactly pleasant.]

[(What is smalltalk even?)]

[He notices a sword and a bow.]

Nice bow.

[bachido]

[Kyou couldn't have realized the Jar of Bonding he would open by complimenting his father's bow.]

Thank you! It was my father's - he was here for a little while, but he -

[Oops, that ventures into sad territory. He veers away.]

Mother and I bought it for him, when she was here too -

[Oh, but that's a bit sad, too. He soldiers on.]

I try to practice with it every day, when there's not a mission, but I don't think I'll ever be as good as Father was. He could split five arrows in a row, without even thinking.

[Beetle did most everything without thinking, but still.]

Do you practice the bow? Would you like to come shoot with me some time?

[Please be an archery buddy, please be an archery buddy.]

[letsgohurtpeople]

[Those pauses are...he knows they mean something and for a second he wonders if they mean the thing he's thinking of. He wonders if the feelings plugging up Kubo's throat and stopping his sentences are the same feelings that've caused his throat to close up. But that's the kicker, isn't it? If he tries to talk about it, he'll choke, and if he's wrong about why Kubo's pausing like that, it'll be mortifying.]

I know how to shoot. I tend to stick to a blowgun and poison darts, though. Easier to conceal.

[Is he supposed to say yes to practicing?]

Are you this... [He struggles to find a word to describe it that is not an asshole word. It's very, very hard.] ... friendly? With everyone?

[The small, nice child confuses him, but to be fair, even most of the non-ninja young people's he knows have dedicated their lives to robbing banks with death lasers. Of his friends, only Amit is too squishy for the supervillain thing.]

[bachido]

I've never used those. Father -

[Does he say 'was,' or 'is?' That's maybe the most confusing part of dealing with his parents who are dead, but might come back. He settles on the hopeful option.]

Father is a samurai. I don't think blowguns and poison darts were among the weapons he'd mastered. I could be wrong, though.

[The reluctance to accept an invitation to practice halted his enthusiasm, too. He had such trouble making connections with kids around his age, and sometimes he didn't understand why. When it was kids who'd never seen their parents murdered in front of them, who'd never taken on the responsibility of superheroing, THAT he understood - but all he'd done was invite the new boy to come shoot with him. Was that wrong? Did he not realize that few people on this station used such archaic weapons, or was Kubo just . . . still too strange for other kids, even here, in his way?]

I don't know what you mean.

[What etiquette was he breaching, here? He thought about it carefully.]

I'm not friendly to cruel people.

[Kyou could, for example, go and ask Rico, but Kubo rolled his eyes even at the thought of bringing Rico into this conversation.]

[letsgohurtpeople]

Ew.

[It's reflexive, not meant to hurt, so he tries to recover.]

I mean the samurai thing. I'm sure your dad's a nice guy.

[You don't insult dads. Or moms. You never know what someone's baggage might be.]

[He scratches the back of his neck.]

It's just I think I'm supposed to factor in the whole eternal blood feud thing when I'm talking to you, but samurai don't exist anymore where I'm from, so I guess it doesn't matter anyway?

[He raises an eyebrow again at the "friendly to cruel people" thing]

But you heard the part where I said I was a ninja, right? As in, I stab people in the back? For money? In a highly professional capacity?

[bachido]

Father is the nicest person I've ever met.

[The insult to samurai in general is quickly washed away by Kyou's caveat. He's respectful of individuals if not a collective, and there are people around worse than that. And as for blood feuds, Kubo is the result of shrugging one off, so -]

My mother did that for a long time. She killed many noble warriors before she met my father.

[He moves his fingers, almost instinctively, to pluck at the strings of his shamisen, the first notes of his mother's story making his paper jolt to attention, though it never quite folds -]

But I'm really not telling the story right. It's . . . too long a story to tell here. Mother wasn't proud of who she'd been, but she was . . .

[There he goes, using the past tense to refer to her, too. When he so much prefers to keep her return a possibility in his mind.]

She's more than her past. You are too.

[He says that with a solid conviction that has nothing to do with knowing Kyou personally. For all he knows, Kyou will always stab anyone for money. But he doesn't have to be that person forever. He'll always have the potential to become someone new.

Or . . . slightly less backstabby.]

But you don't have to come and shoot with the son of a samurai if your clan has a code against that. I'll just go and shoot by myself . . . with my father's bow . . . and my mother's magic sword . . .

[And if a backstabbing ninja happens to show up maybe they can be friends anyway? It wouldn't be the first time someone of Kubo's ancestry has befriended a murderous night terror.]

[letsgohurtpeople]

Who do you -

[He's about to do a full 'who do you think you are? You don't know me, shut the fuck up' in response to the 'you are too,' but he grits his teeth and stops mid-sentence, because he's been...trying. He's been trying to not bite everyone's heads off five seconds in their first conversation. He still sucks at it, but an attempt is an attempt, right?]

[Also a magic sword sounds cool.]

[But mostly it's the past tense. "Mother was," along side the present tense. There's...something there. Something that makes him curious.]

Magic sword, huh? That sounds almost not lame. As far as samurai bullshit goes.

[bachido]

[The indignation came too quick for Kubo not to notice. It stings, again, that he was trying to be friendly and kind, but making another mistake that gets people mad at him.

Why did that make Kyou angry? He'd said he stabbed people in the back, and the way he said it, he seemed to know that was hardly an honorable thing to carry on doing in life -

'You don't have to come' is on the tip of Kubo's tongue. But if he's the one who's given the offense, well - he did act with rash pride the first time he squared off against Rico, when he made the mistake of baiting the judge. Rash pride doesn't lead anywhere better than making a mistake in the first place.

He settles, then, for a briefer, more subdued response.]

It's another story too long to tell here.

[Unfortunately, that sounds unfriendly, but is just true.]

Mother, Father, and I fought a gashadokuro for it.

[letsgohurtpeople]

Okay, that's more than just not-lame, that's actually kinda cool.

[Kinda.]

[This is hard. Because maybe he would like to hear some stories, maybe he would like to hang out and practice archery. Maybe this is someone his age who he can joke around with.]

[But maybe it'll blow up in his face somehow, because most people suck and he knows you can't really trust anyone. His friends back home are a rare, rare exception, so rare that he's willing to throw himself on a grenade to protect them at this point.]

[He's just not used to this, not used to kindness, or people wanting to spend time with him.]

[Still, despite his hesitation, he decides to go for it.]

[But he can't seem to look at Kubo's eyes through the comms. He has to look away from his comm-screen, like just wanting to hang out makes him feel vulnerable somehow - like he's used to eye contact being a dangerous thing during vulnerable moments.]

I guess I could use a little archery practice. You never know when you might have to improvise in a fight. Pick up an enemy's weapon. Or something.

[bachido]

[The vulnerability is clear, and Kubo softens more over it. Maybe he's not the only one here who has trouble making friends his age.

There's a small drawing program on his omnicom, and he quickly uses it to design a little map from the edge of the Hab to a set point, then sends it to Kyou.]

Here's a map to my father's part of the Hab. It's underground, but not very deep. I have Watch for the next two hours, but I'm going over to practice after that. If you want to come, I'll wait by the entrance for a little.

[letsgohurtpeople]

Yeah, okay.

[Um. What else is he supposed to do?]

I'll see you then?

[And then he disconnects because friendliness is weird.]

[bachido]

[Kubo was going to advise him to follow the sound of the shamisen if he got lost, but well, probably Kyou can figure that one out for himself.

So two hours later, he's jogged down to the hole in the Hab that lowers into the series of underground misty caverns that had been built when Beetle arrived. Small streams issue from the surrounding piney mountains, trickling into the hole as small, separate waterfalls. Kubo sits by the entrance, where rough stairs are carved into the mossy stone, and plays a gentle stream tune while he waits, tapping the small looper machine on his belt to play one of his prerecorded percussion tracks. His father's bow and his mother's sword lean on the stone beside him.]

[letsgohurtpeople]

[It's very...homey. In a weird way.]

[The secret villages of his clan, both in Japan and New Jersey were in hidden natural places, shrouded by the strange powers of the rifts each branch of the clan guarded. That means he's spent most of his life outdoors, training, playing -- and after his family died, sleeping.]

This is...it's kind of nice. I guess.

[The words are awkward.]

You know, for a big hole in the ground.

[bachido]

[Kubo privately wondered if Kyou would continue to wear the mask in person as in the video, but just as people politely don't ask about his eyepatch in general, he's not planning to ask about another person's unusual features.]

It's beautiful once you're down inside. A little strange, but still beautiful. It was my father's when he was here.

[He slides the shamisen around to his back as he stands, the Sword Unbreakable hanging from his belt, and picks up the bow to lead Kyou down into Beetle's caverns.]

I always practice archery down there. No one can accidentally walk in front of the arrows that way.

[He looks over his shoulder as he descends the stairs into the cool, damp caverns, nodding to Kyou an invitation to follow.

Down below the surface, the waterfalls fill the air with mist. Small flowers bloom in the moss that grows on everything. Stone bridges crisscross down to the bottom of the hollow, where the falling water rushes away into the dark depths in a shallow river. Each bridge disappears into a different cavern, the darkness suggesting great depth.

Nothing about this damp, cool place is particularly suitable for human habitation, though. Which makes it odder still that there's a track well worn down one of the bridges and into a cavern midway down the wall, where Kubo has pressed a path into the moss many times.]

I guess you must have been using a bow for a while.

[Kubo suggests it as he strings the bow, an activity which requires serious effort on his part. He's gotten stronger, and gets stronger every day in the Legion, but there's no getting around the fact that the bow is too big for him and almost too heavy for him to pull.]