| Fan Fiction |
by .flavored
Yesung stared at it, frowning. He had no problem with bent telephone poles, so that wasn’t the reason he was staring at it.
It seemed ordinary enough, made of steel, painted the colour of vomit, though the dirt and grime suggested that it probably was a nice and fresh green once.
But yet, Yesung was staring at it with the concentration you would normally only give when speed-solving a rubik’s cube… or during constipation.
After a long passing of minutes, Yesung finally opened his mouth to ask, “Where do you think I could find a Soul?”
To his disappointment, the telephone pole offered no revelation. And Yesung was left to contemplate this earth-shattering question on his own.
Yesung sighed and continued to walk the deserted road on his own. These days, hardly anyone who was sane would come out at night, even in a group. Monsters tended to prowl during these times, picking off the stray human who foolishly wandered alone at night.
Normally, Yesung would have been worried, especially with his patchy summoning skills. But tonight, he had more important things to worry about.
Like whether that nice rusty abandoned bicycle just at the edge of one of the many narrow alleyways would know the answer to his dire question.
As if starting a conversation with a bicycle was something normal people did everyday, Yesung squatted down and began questioning it earnestly. “So, have you heard where I could find someone to be my Soul?”
As if by fate, or a really weird coincidence, the bicycle decided it was time to break apart into pieces.
Yesung fell back in surprise, then scowled at the offensive bike. “You could have just said no!”
He got up, dejected, kicking at a piece of debris. Then his eyes brightened as he spied a cat walking lazily up to him. “Cat-nim. Oh, wait, you’re a Japanese cat. Er… Neko-san… er… Soul… where… find?”
The cat blinked its green eyes at him then purred, before running off.
“Hey! Wait up, Neko-san!” Yesung raced after the streak of white. Stumbling over much of the rubble and rubbish that lay strewn across the floor.
Yesung was panting hard by the time he had caught up with the cat, which had stopped at the side of an alleyway. “Why… did you… ahh… run so… Neko-san?”
The cat meowed, turning its head to the right as if peering into the alleyway.
That’s when Yesung realized he wasn’t alone. As Leeteuk had trained them, Yesung hid swiftly behind the wall. Luckily, whoever was in the alleyway hadn’t realized his presence.
Voices traveled toward him as he peeked from his hiding place, he saw a group of six, 3 girls and 3 guys.
To his surprise, they were talking in Korean, although there was some rudimentary Japanese mixed in.
“Come on, leave the girl alone.” A sensible-looking chap was reasoning with a big gangster-looking fella. “She’s your Soul, you should treat her right.”
“Yah! She’s my Soul! I can do what I want with her! Don’t you dare lecture your leader!” the said fella grabbed the arm of a frail-looking girl. Even from his vantage point and only slightly enhanced eyesight, Yesung could see the purple bruises blossoming as the guy squeezed her arm yet tighter.
Now, Yesung was rather slow when it came to most situations. But even he knew how to spot a damsel in distress from a mile away.
It was just a bonus that the said damsel happened to also be a Soul.
The perfectly mannered Yesung remembered to whom he owed this piece of information to and bowed his thanks. “Domo arigato gozaimasu, Neko-san.”
As if in response, the cat bowed its head, then ambled off in its own compulsive direction.
Now… to plan his grand entry…
~*~
“He’s going to fail…”
A raised eyebrow. “How do you know, Unni?”
“Don’t you remember the scene just this afternoon?”
A pause. “Oh yeah…”
Both looked at each other, then at the said necromancer whom was the topic of this discussion.
“He’s going to fail.”
~*~
“Hey, quit it! Argh!”
The argument had progressed into a full out fist-fight. So far, the gangster-guy was succeeding in making his point. All around him, his members were curled up in pain, nursing painful mid-sections and er… lower parts.
“Come here, you!” the gangster-guy yelled, grabbing onto the poor Soul. The girl looked up with her coal-black eyes, her face emotionless. “Stop looking at me like that! Stop! Stop! Stop!”
Each yell was punctuated by a kick or hit. Instead of crying out in fear, the girl dodged or blocked each blow calmly. With each successful block, the brute of a guy became more and more agitated.
“Stop! As your Guardian, I order you!” the brute roared, rearing his arm back for a hard punch.
Anyone could see that this would have made it easier to dodge, but the girl, as if led by some external compulsion, dropped her hands down, letting his hit slam her right into the wall.
With a sneer, the brute pulled the coughing girl out from the cloud of brick dust. He lifted the girl up by the neck, squeezing as he did so.
“Not so strong now, aren’t we?! Huh?! That’ll teach you to remember who’s master!”
If he was trying to get a reaction from the girl, he’d succeeded. Hatred now stared at the brutish face out from the depths of cold eyes. And for a moment, the guy thought he saw the girl’s eyes flash a brilliant red.
“You know, I think you should put her down.”
The brute glared up from his strangling of the girl. Wondering who had dared to interrupt – no, had dared to even habour the thought of interrupting him. “Who was that?!”
“Oh, it’s just me.” Yesung melted out of the shadows, a carefully neutral smile on his face. “I’m just a passer-by trying to be helpful.”
“A passer-by, should mind his own business.” The brute suddenly filled the entirety of Yesung’s vision. Despite his bulk, his enhanced physical prowess was still fast compared to Yesung’s.
Yesung sighed. Everyone in Japan seemed to be a linked Guardian except him.
“Well, I know that.” Yesung answered, though his eyes were on the girl choking in the brute’s monstrous hand. She was quite pretty, in a doll-like way. Her skin was white and smooth like porcelain, her eyes big and framed with dark lashes. And he had to say the black Lolita lace dress that she was wearing suited her.
“Look to me when I’m talking!” the brute screamed at Yesung, who winced as he felt saliva splatter onto his face. Now that he realized it, the brute was very obviously drunk.
“I’m sorry. I just really think that you should let her go.” The girl stared unabashedly at him as he said this. ‘She really is kinda cute…’
“Well, why should I?!” the brute grabbed Yesung’s collar. Yesung grimaced as smelly breath hit his nostrils.
“Er… because her eyes are turning bright red… And she actually looks quite scary glaring at you.”
“Hah!” the brute sneered. “You’re lying! And even if you’re not, she wouldn’t attack me. I’m her Guardian!”
Yesung stared quizzically at him. “… What does being her Guardian have to do with her not attacking you?”
“Hah! So pretty boys really don’t have much of a brain after all!”
Yesung sighed. “Well, even if that’s true, aren’t gangster idiots even lower down the IQ line than pretty boys?”
“WHAT?!”
“Besides,” Yesung ignored him. “If a Soul’s pissed off enough, he or she will attack their Guardians despite whatever orders given. I should know, I’ve witnessed it first-hand. And… really… why I am explaining to you all this? You’re too much of an idiot to understand any language besides this…”
The brute’s eyes widened as a howling wind sped through the alleyway, crying of death and destruction. From out of the shadows, a singular Beast of Death emerged.
It was bigger and menacing than the ones Yesung had summoned in the afternoon, for it was a denizen of the night. And at night, it would attain its full powers.
“Well…” Yesung stared coldly at the brute. “Are you going to let her go, or not?”
Without even a second thought, the brute released his grip on the girl and began to back away from the horrible creature. Yesung ignored the typical ‘menacing-creature-advances-on-scared-silly-human-being’ scene and rushed to the girl’s side.
“You okay?” he brushed her off the best as he could without touching her bruises. “Come on, let’s get out of here before I– ah… too late…”
There was a horrifying shriek as the Beast of Death slipped out Yesung’s control, and pounced upon the terrified brute. Within seconds, the beast had reduced human into gore and sections of chewed meat.
Yesung picked the girl up, slightly surprised at the lightness, before backing away as quickly as he could. Perhaps he would be lucky, and the Beast of Death would not notice him leaving, absorbed as it was in its current meal.
But, as was usual, luck was not on Yesung’s side. As if sensing the movement, the Beast of Death suddenly materialized behind Yesung, warping through the shadows. Then it lay down at the entrance, making sure that its other prey could not leave while it finished its first course.
Spinning around, Yesung began to back up the other way, only too aware of the dead-end a meager 10 meters behind him. He tightened his hands around the girl, whispering an apology into her ear.
“I’m sorry…”
~*~
“Unni!”
“…”
“Unni, what are you waiting for, you’ve got to help!”
“… I’ve got to?”
A glare as the shorter cloaked figure spun round to her nonchalant companion. “The two of them are about to become dog food! Of course you have to help!”
“Technically, a Beast of Death isn’t a dog…”
“UNNI!”
“Sheesh, Dongsaeng, you drive a hard bargain.” A yawn. “When I save someone, you complain that we should keep a low cover. When I don’t, you scream at me to do so.”
“That’s because you always save people when they don’t need saving!”
Silence. Then a tired look as the taller figure moved over to the railings to stare down at the dangerous situation
“You really should trust me, Dongsaeng. I’m an informant. I know when people need saving, and when people don’t.”
Gray eyes gleamed as she examined the frail little girl in Yesung’s arms.
“And that girl certainly doesn’t need saving.”
~*~
“Necromancer-san… why are you apologizing?”
Yesung blinked down at the girl. He thought it was pretty obvious as to why.
Still, he explained. “Well, we’re about to be eaten by a Beast of Death, and it’s my fault.”
“Hontou ni?”
“Er… hai. I summoned it in the first place, then I lost control of it. It sucks being an unlinked Guardian.”
“Sou desu ka… Then it’s no problem. Daijoubu. Put me down.” The frail little girl tried to struggle out of his hands.
“Eh?” Yesung blinked, letting her down more out of surprise than anything else. “Hey! Wait!”
Yesung grabbed the girl as she was about to walk forward. “Are you insane?”
The girl sighed patiently, and then continued in a voice that was usually reserved for the mentally unsound. “Iiya, I’m not insane. I’m just going to save the beast from the tedious eating of someone who is.”
“But you just said that you weren’t insane!”
“I meant you.”
“I’m not insane!”
“So says the person who summoned a Beast of Death he knew he couldn’t control.”
Yesung opened his mouth, then closed it. She had a point.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he noticed that the Beast of Death rising up again. A pile of bones rested at its feet.
The Beast of Death had fed.
And it was still hungry for more.
Instinctively, Yesung threw himself in front of the girl just as the beast pounced…
~*~
“Unni!”
“Just watch…”
~*~
… and froze in mid-air.
Yesung looked up and blinked. He was pretty sure that the Beast of Death did so too. He could almost discern a bemused look on its face…
Yesung decided it was probably not a good idea to laugh in a life and death situation and kept his mouth shut.
“There.” Yesung turned round to see the girl look faintly pleased. “It won’t be able to move for the next 5 minutes. More than enough time to make a contract.”
Yesung blinked. “What?”
The girl looked up at the confused necromancer. “A contract. You’re an unlinked Guardian correct? So in order to be able to control that Beast of Death, you’ll need a Soul, no?”
“Eh?”
The girl assumed a deadpanned expression. “You see… I’m a Soul…”
“Yes, yes. I know.” Yesung hastily explained himself. “What I meant was, how did you do that?!”
The girl idly wondered how anyone’s body could be so flexible in flailing one’s limbs in the direction of a motionless Beast of Death. “Oh, that. I’m a Shadow Puppeteer.”
“Eh?”
The deadpanned look again. “It means I can control shadows. And Beast of Death are essentially made of shadows”
“No, no.” Yesung wondered why the girl thought him so ignorant. “Why are you still able to use your powers? Isn’t your Guardian dead?”
“Ah… well… the contract between me and Dagger was a temporary one. And that stipulates that when either of the pair dies, the other gets a grace of 10 minutes of enhanced power. I assume it’s to escape from a dangerous situation.”
“Oh? So we should start running away now!” Yesung began to try to run forward, only to find himself stuck to the ground.
The girl was stepping on his shadow. “Onegai, we only have 3 minutes left. You’ve got to make a contract with me.”
“Aish! Okay, okay. Er… I’ve never done this before.” Yesung knelt down in front of the girl in order to be around her height. ‘Wow, she’s really short…’
“I figured.” The girl took a small knife out of the pocket and sliced across her hand. A thin line of blood welled up. “Come. You have to do the same”
“Ow. Well, actually that didn’t hurt.” Yesung commented as the girl held his slit hand with hers.
“1 minute left.” The girl frowned, “Okay, say this together with me: Actio personalis moritur cum persona.”
Yesung obliged obediently, albeit with some trouble.
“By this shared blood, I bond with thee. In veritate nomen, in veritate vita. Id quod commune est, nostrum esse dicitur.”
“Okay, now’s my line: Sine solf sileo.”
Yesung blinked as the girl began to glow an eerie black aura. “Er…”
“It’s normal.” The girl interrupted him. “Now your line: Sine umbra nihil.”
“Sine umbra nihil.” Yesung felt the oddest tingling around him. He looked down at his hands and saw that they were glowing blood red.
The girl gave him a weak smile. “Now, together: Thus it is done.”
At that moment, the 10 minutes were up, and the Beast of Death leapt forward in motion again, bearing upon the pair in a fury of claw and teeth…
And was thrown back by the force of blinding light as the contract was completed.
And thus, it was done.
~*~
“I told you so.” There was a smug tone in the taller’s voice. “I know a Shadow Puppeteer when I see one.”
A frown. “Alright, you win this time. But…you are tailing Super Junior. Don’t lie.”
“Yah! I’m not lying! This is a case of false information!” the taller sighed. “Besides, the one I was tailing was the girl, not Yesung.”
A raised eyebrow. “Huh, what’s so special about her.”
“Nothing. She’s not who I’m looking for. Hence the false information part.”
“… Who are we finding then?”
Another one of those irritating enigmatic looks. “The key to the puzzle, of course.”
“Aish! I swear I just might hit you one day!”
“Juramentum est indivisibile et non est admittendum in parte verum et in parte falsum, Dongsaeng!”
“What?!”
“An oath is indivisible and it is not to be held partly true and partly false.”
“ARGH!”
~*~
“I feel kind of different…”
The girl eyed the slightly dazed necromancer. “Of course you do. You have enhanced senses now. I expect the hearing thing is the most disturbing.”
“Yeah… what’s that strange buzzing noise?”
The girl looked amused. “That’s the sound of a fly, over there. By those dustbins.”
“Wow… And what’s that… thumping noise?”
“It’s two people making love three blocks away.”
There was a pause. “Let’s pretend I never asked.”
“Hey… my mark really is different now!” Yesung suddenly realized the Guardian mark on the back of his left hand now had red lines drawn around the sun.
“Hai, of course it is. I expect mine to be different as well.”
“Oh? What does it look like? I’ve never seen a Soul’s mark before.”
The girl pondered this for a moment. “Ano… it’s pretty much the same as yours, but with a crescent moon in the center instead. And an unlinked soul’s mark is pretty much like a outline. When we’re linked, the lines fills up with the aura colour of the Guardian.”
“Really?” Yesung asked curiously. “Where’s yours?”
The girl blinked at this. Then she lifted up her skirt, revealing her upper thigh..
“Hey!” Yesung panicked, and pushed the girl’s skirt back down before he could see anything. “Girls shouldn’t lift up their skirts in front of guys like that!”
The girl looked bemused. “But you asked me where my mark was. It’s on my upper thigh. I was going to show you.”
Yesung’s face blushed an awesome red. “Ahh… Never mind, never mind.”
“From what I could see.” The girl continued as if Yesung wasn’t becoming a tomato before her eyes. “The lines were black. I’ve never met someone with a black aura before.”
“Leeteuk says its more of a charcoal colour.” Yesung answered distractedly. “Er… I just realized that I don’t know your name.”
“My name is Alice Amorette E. Yoko, Guardian-sama”
“You can just call me Yesung-kun. Or if you’re uncomfortable with that, Yesung-san would be fine.” Yesung felt proud that he knew of the correct Japanese honorifics. “But er… your name’s quite a mouthful. What do I call you?”
“You may call me whatever you wish, Yesung-san.” The puppeteer bowed. “Every of my previous Guardians gave me a new name. I’ve had four so far, thus I have four names.”
“…” this girl puzzled Yesung. She had an intelligence that one would not put to a girl so young, yet she seemed to always belittle herself with barely any self-acknowledgement.
Yesung could almost go as far to say that she treated herself like an item – an object like the doll her features resembled.
“Yesung-san?”
“I’m not going to give you any name.” Yesung finally said. “I’ll only call you by your name when you finally give yourself one.”
Puzzlement flitted across Alice’s face, then a slow understanding. “Hai, I understand.”
“Good.” Yesung was about to move off when the next statement from Alice sent him tumbling head over heels.
“But isn’t even more of a mouthful to call me ‘by your name when you finally give yourself one’?”
“Ah… forget it.” Yesung sighed. “Come on, I’ll bring you to meet the others.”
“The others?”
“The rest of my iDOL, of course. I think you’ll like them.”
“If you say so, Yesung-san.”
~*~
*Five minutes later*
“Yesung-san, we’ve passed that shop five times.”
“…”
~*~
It was 9 a.m. in the morning.
And Yesung hadn’t returned yet.
Leeteuk had called an emergency meeting. It showed how worried the leader was to have been awake this early the day after an alcoholic party.
“Okay, here’s the plan.” Leeteuk was briefing the crowd of Guardians and Souls, of which only Kangin (who was feeling slightly guilty) was paying any attention. “He probably visited Harajuku again, since that’s the only place he remembers how to get to. Now we’ll split up and… Yesung?!”
At Leeteuk’s relieved shout, everyone swerved to see the Necromancer standing in the doorway, somewhat perplexed at the entirely unusual gathering of the iDOL so early in the morning.
“See, I told you that rabid dog would be fine.” Heechul sighed, assuming a haughty ‘I-told-you-so’ expression.
“Hyung-ah, you’re alright…Thank goodness.” Kangin heaved a sigh of relief. Yoonji raised an eyebrow at the very un-Kangin-like remark. Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice.
“Where did you go all night?” Leeteuk was only just beginning to calm down and still had some adrenaline running through his blood. He crossed over to the necromancer and shook him. “We were really worried you know– oh, who’s this?”
Leeteuk had spied the unfamiliar girl hiding behind Yesung. He craned his neck, managing to see only silky black hair and the skirt of a black lace outfit.
Yesung followed Leeteuk’s action, then chuckling lightly, gently pushed Alice out from behind him. “Leeteuk-hyung. This is my Soul.”
At this, everyone in the room looked up, staring curiously at the doll-like girl. She stared back, her black eyes barely blinking.
“Introduce yourself.” Yesung whispered to Alice. Who turned to look at him and then nodded her agreement.
“Ohayo gozaimasu.” She bowed formally. “My name’s Alice Amorette E. Yoko. Please feel free to use me.”
There was silence for a moment.
Then, Hirin let out a high-pitched yelp, her eyes widening.
Hankyung nudged Heechul frantically, not knowing if he had really heard what he thought he heard, or if his Korean was failing him again.
But Heechul didn’t pay him any attention. Instead he was busy contemplating if Alice was serious about her statement or if her Korean was as bad as Hankyung’s.
Miseon began laughing uncontrollably, barely managing to stay upright by grabbing onto a table.
Wichan didn’t even seem to be fazed, though she did glance up once from polishing her katana.
Yoonji didn’t know exactly how to react, and just settled for doing a goldfish impression.
Kangin sped over to Yesung and whacked him on the head, who in turn face-palmed himself.
But what Leeteuk said pretty much summed it up.
“Figures that Yesung would choose a Soul that would be as weird as him…”
~*~
“Unni… your phone.”
A grunt, then a beep as the noisy rock tune was silenced.
A sleepy voice. “Hello…?”
A faint voice could be heard, “Hello? Curione-sshi?”
“Oa… Youngsaeng-sshi? Do you know what time it is?”
“Actually, it’s 10 a.m. Shouldn’t you be awake?”
“No…” a groan as the tall lady got up. “I was up all night tailing someone. Argh… what is it?”
“Well, I just called to let you know that we’re leaving for Korea.”
“Oh…? For a job?”
“Er, no. As in, for good. Hyunjoong-hyung just decided it this morning.”
“…” Curione’s brain woke up. “Eh?!”
“Well, you know him. He’s always making impulsive decisions. And since he’s the leader, we have to follow what he says.”
“Oh… okay… I’ll still be in Japan for another 2 days. Do you need me to get you a contact?”
“Yes, that’ll be helpful. I need to orientate myself with the Korean market again.” A sigh, then suddenly a loud sound of protest from a distance.
“Youngsaeng-sshi?”
“Sorry, that was Reii… Hyungjoon is running away from her.”
“Oh? What did she make this time?”
“Er… I think it’s Pineapple Noodles.” A pause as someone shouted across. “Oh, sorry. Reii says its Pineapple juice with a variety of different kind of noodles.”
“Ugh. Right. I’ll get in touch with you soon. When are you leaving?”
“Well, supposedly, tomorrow morning. But I bet that it’ll actually be 3 days later.”
“Alright. Expect my call then.”
“Thank you, Curione-sshi.”
Curione rubbed her eyes, disconnecting her call even before the dial tone sounded. “Aish, I’m wide-awake now. Can’t go back to sleep.”
Bright sunlight was streaming in from a slit in the curtain. Not wanting to disturb the other 2 in her room, Curione put on her cloak and slid silently out into the veranda.
A strange sight greeted her – a myriad of colourful tents were spread across the barren land of rubble. Babbles of voices rose up as people shouted their wares to more people browsing through the spaces. There was an air of celebration despite the hot sun that was pounding down upon the land.
“Is it already time for the Memorial Festival?” a sleepy voice behind her asked.
“Yes, yes it is, Ash. Sorry, I must have woken you.” She turned round, smiling at the sleepy male. As usual, he’d forgotten to put on anything before he came out into the open. As a result, he was only wearing a pair of black boxers. “Here.”
Ash looked at the black cloak Curione had offered to him, then down at himself. “Oops.”
“Oops, is right.” Curione laughed, draping the cloak around his shoulders. “Come on, let’s wake our magnae up. It’s high time she visited the festival. She’s always refused to.”
“With quite a good reason.” Ash murmured. “… what are you planning, Curione?”
Curione assumed a long-suffering look. “I really don’t understand why you and Yuio think I’m manipulating things all the time…”
“Maybe because you do.”
“Well, alright. I do have my moments, but not all things were planned by me. Certainly, not what’s going to happen soon.”
Ash’s face darkened. “Lacrimosa Terra?”
“Yes…” Curione looked back into the room, where the sun had begun to shine upon the remaining sleeping figure. It gleamed off a sheet of long black hair, pale skin and a small frame.
“In omni re nascitur res quae ipsam rem exterminat.”
Curione grinned at Ash’s quote. “Yes, the destruction of something is born within itself…”
“It won’t be long now.”
~*~