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Tachihara had grown up hearing tales of dragons. They were monsters, they were protectors, they were something to respect and something to fear. Encountering them could mean death, or it could mean you would never have to worry about losing your life again.
They could soar higher than the clouds and burn the stars while they were at it, they could raze towns or keep castles safe til their flesh turned to rot.
All his life, that’s how Tachihara heard of dragons. From the days when he was little, and his brother told him the stories, to when he was a teen, repeating them all to Shunzen’s grave. And now that he’s older, and part of the royal guard, they all feel so much realer.
But even so, nothing prepares him for what he sees on his usual scouting route one fateful morning. Smoke is rising from the forest like a fire’s broken out, so he spurs his horse on, trying to head to the source as quick as he can. But the steed is resistant, first pawing at the ground, then actively trying to kick him off. So he leaves it for now, tying its reins around a branch, then runs the rest of the way.
Smoke clogs his nose, seeping into his lungs, making his eyes water, but he does not turn back.
Tachihara stops in his tracks, however, when he sees the cause.
A massive black dragon, scales of night gleaming in the morning sun. Its head is horned, webbing in between them. Its wings are tucked to its sides, its tail curled in on itself. Tachihara can spy talons which look so sharp they could cut blades themselves, but even so…
Crimson pools under it.
He isn’t sure what to do, and that indecisiveness is punished when its eyes open, pupils going as slitted as a cat’s, gray being their background. It spreads its wings out wide, and they’re so long they blot out all hold the sun had over the clearing. It lets out a furious roar, and Tachihara steps back quickly.
“Hey- hey -” Its fangs could mince his flesh, he can already feel the sensation of it biting down–
It shoves itself up, flapping its wings, pushing dust up into the air. Blood pours out of claw marks on its side, but its fury hardly wavers. Tachihara recoils even further when it leans on a tree, splintering it just by weight. Its jaws snap at him, but he’s out of the way before he can be harmed.
“Okay look-” Tachihara flinches when he backs himself against a tree, “I’m not gonna slay you.”
The dragon hisses, smoke oozing from its jaws. “And why ,” Oh, it sounds like every word brings it closer to death, “Should I trust that ?”
Tachihara’s golden eyes meet its silver ones, and he bites back a shiver. He’s close but not enough for it to sink its fangs into him, and he can see a plethora of scars on the dragon, lighter scales amongst the raven hue. His mind is so blank, he can’t really think of a reason.
So instead he takes his sword out of the sheath, throwing it away from him. (Regardless of the fact that he could easily bring it back to him, but he so rarely uses any kind of magic that he doubts the dragon could pick up on it now.)
The dragon watches keenly, slinking off the tree. It is close enough to kill, now. But instead it growls right next to Tachihara’s ear–and this time he can’t prevent the shiver running down his spine–a threat that’s going to keep him up at night for a while.
“I’ll only let you run this time.”
He doesn’t waste the chance. His horse is so stressed he’s barely able to get on, but when it starts running, he lets it go where it wants.
It takes him right back to the stables anyway.
–
A couple days later, he is still thinking about the dragon, replaying what happened in his mind even as he’s meant to be focusing on the words of the kingdom’s top general, Fukuchi Ochi. Tachihara and his fellow knights are the most important there are, being the king’s royal guard.
And, if it’s ever needed, dragonslayers. The action is never encouraged, but it is a fact of life which lingers over everyone’s psyche that sometimes one must dare to strike them down and pray the consequences aren’t worse than the dragon’s destruction.
But even so, killing a dragon…
The name has been lost to history, of the kingdom which last did that. Tachihara hardly thinks it’s worth it.
“Tachihara!” Teruko suddenly smacks him, and he yelps, jolting up.
“What was that for?!” He huffs, rubbing his head. Teruko’s glaring at him, and as he glances sheepishly around the room, he realizes everyone is looking at him. He sinks into his chair.
“What’s on your mind?” Fukuchi asks, a tinge of amusement to his voice.
Tachihara laughs nervously, hardly about to be honest. “Nothing important, sorry.”
Fukuchi hums, staring down at him curiously. If he’s going to pry, he won’t do it now. “If you say so.”
Teruko raises her hand as if to smack him again, but Tetchou just puts her hand down on the table easily. Her glare snaps to them.
“Don’t smack him.” Tetchou replies calmly. She proceeds to smack them with their other hand.
–
Tachihara feels lucky to live beside the sea sometimes. The port is as busy as it always is, full of shops and travelers passing through, but Tachihara has long learned to navigate it, twisting through the crowds and winding past stalls till he gets to the dock.
“Higuchi!” He calls, going over, immediately starting to help with loading a ship up.
Higuchi smiles. “Tachihara! How have you been?”
It’s complicated, but he’s not going to say that. So instead he shrugs his shoulders sheepishly, “Good. What about you?”
“Oh, busy,” She sets a crate down on the deck, running a hand through her hair, “Since the masquerade’s coming up so many traders have been coming through, wanting to sell stuff like dresses or fabrics to make dresses and all of that, hah..”
“We have seen so many people dressed like all the colors of the rainbow swarmed them.” Kuniko–Higuchi’s sister who accompanies her to the dock everyday–chimes in, groaning. Higuchi snorts.
“Oh, right, that’s coming up…” Tachihara blinks. “I forgot about it.”
“Oh?” Higuchi tilts her head as she goes and picks up another crate. “You were all excited for it last year.”
Tachihara looks around for a place to set the one he’s holding down, deciding on dropping it next to Higuchi’s. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Kuniko sticks her tongue out. “You wouldn’t shut up about it.”
“Kuniko!” Higuchi chides, but the younger just snickers.
Tachihara shakes his head, “It’s alright- I’m just distracted this year.” By big sharp claws and keen grey eyes instead of silks and dresses…
Kuniko seems to notice the second his mind wanders, because she goes over and pokes him even as he’s lifting another crate up. “By what?”
Tachihara laughs. “Nothing-”
“Oh, by the way,” Higuchi chimes in, whether on purpose or because her own mind is hyper too, “Did you hear about how John’s supposedly selling dragon scales?”
Tachihara’s blood runs cold. He nearly drops the crate as he turns to look at her. “What?”
Higuchi sets her own down, gesturing with one of her now free hands to the south end of the market. “On that side– he strolled into town with a wagon full of some weird black things this morning. I dunno if they’re actually dragon scales–he wouldn’t tell us if they were or not…–but it might be cool to get one… if Ace hasn’t bought them all already, he was shoving people out of his way to get to the front of the line, hah…” She shakes her head.
Tachihara’s quiet for a moment, then says. “...I think I’ll go check that out. If–”
“I got this, it’s okay!” Higuchi smiles at him. “Go on- and say hi to him for me!”
He doesn’t spare another second.
–
It’s one thing to sell parts which are undeniably from a dragon. A skull will get you investigated, talons risk the possibility of such, and it goes from there. An entire corpse depends on who slayed it.
Scales are a safe bet, considering the fact that many a scale looks like a gemstone.
Sometimes gemstones are even just called dragon scales due to their shape, so of course someone would jump at the chance to make money from them.
But Tachihara knows better. He knows what he saw in the woods, he remembers that voice, those claws, those sharp eyes, those even sharper fangs. And he does not trust John Steinbeck, damn the fact that he’s made friends with Higuchi. That doesn’t make him and Steinbeck friends, after all.
When he gets to the stall, Steinbeck’s already cast an easy smile at him. He scoffs in return. Steinbeck seems unbothered, just sitting up, gesturing to the scales left. “You can pick em up if you want.”
“I figured.” He does so, grasping the nearest one, running his hands over it. It smells of smoke, and detached from the dragon it really could be mistaken for coal, or some other mundane burnt thing. But he–
“You recognize these.” Steinbeck comments, his voice low. Tachihara’s eyes snap back to him, and he doesn’t say a word.
Steinbeck leans closer before Tachihara can even think of some anyway. “You don’t have to worry. Didn’t see a corpse anywhere.”
Tachihara’s hand twitches, eager to grasp his sword. He doesn’t, though, because he’s been taught better than that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Steinbeck laughs. “Sure.”
Tachihara backs off as quickly as he can without looking suspicious, disappearing into the crowd…
Then he runs, as fast as he can, to the woods. Without stopping unless his body forces him to, without even thinking.
–
Where he saw the dragon looks like a wasteland. The trees have gone grey, the grass yellow, the leaves wilted and rotting. He spies bugs dead on the ground with other wildlife.
Not a single living thing in sight beyond him. He shudders, hesitant to even step into the clearing. It smells disgusting , like a graveyard of dug up bodies.
Every bone in his body is telling him not to enter. Not to be contaminated too. And as impulsive as he is, he listens, backing away, coughing; it tastes like smoke still hangs in the air.
He scours around it, looking for something. Scrapes in the ground from draconic talons, a scale Steinbeck didn’t find, anything.
The only thing he sees is the mark of Steinbeck’s boots on the ground, and he wants to put a hole in something. His body is burning from exhaustion, and he leans against a tree- moreso collapses, really. Every breath just makes him cough more and more , till he’s lightheaded and every fiber of his being hurts when he tries to inhale.
It goes dark.
–
He wakes up in a medical cot in the healing wing of the castle, eyelids fighting him as he attempts to open them.
“Oh, good, finally awake.”
He groans, looking over at whoever’s speaking, and wants to recoil. It’s the best doctor they can call on.
Yosano Akiko; the woman who never really got to say goodbye to Shunzen either. Her gaze is sharp, brows furrowed, and he just blinks slowly. “How did I…”
“Some stranger brought you here.”
“Hhhwhat.” He wracks his brain, trying to think of someone who could have retrieved him from there that Yosano wouldn’t know. She’s met Higuchi and Kuniko before, he’d hardly call his fellow knights strangers, Hirotsu can hardly carry him even if he’s a magic user, if Mori had been the one to find him then he wouldn’t be here right now…
He has no idea.
“I know as much as you do.” Yosano shrugs, moving to stand beside his cot, and her look softens. “Don’t go near spots like that again.”
He wants to say, I know better, I promise , but can’t find that he has the energy to do so. Nor does he think he can handle doing so when she follows it up with, “Shunzen would… want you to be safe.”
He nods a little. I know. I know that so well it hurts. He doesn’t know if Shunzen would even approve of him being a knight. He’d probably hate it to know he tried to follow in his footsteps.
Yosano sighs, tucking a strand of hair behind Tachihara’s ear. Something Shunzen used to do, and probably something she picked up from him.
“Okay.” Tachihara mumbles. “Sorry.”
Yosano shakes her head. “If you’re lucky, you’ll be out of here in time for the masquerade.”
Tachihara tries to sit up. “Wait, wh-”
She gives him an unamused look and he gets the message to lay back down. “You could have died. There’s a reason they got me for this.”
“But–” I need to look for the dragon. I can’t be in bed for weeks. I can’t just stay here. I have duties to attend to.
“No.” Yosano says, firmly, cutting his train of thought off. “Doctor’s orders.”
He looks away, gazing longingly out the window, and doesn’t argue.
–
Time ticks away painfully slowly until the masquerade arrives and Yosano lets him leave the day before. Upon stepping out of the room, he’s tackled by Teruko, rolling around on the floor with a yelp.
Yosano sighs loudly as she watches Teruko squeeze the life out of Tachihara.
“Don’t ever be an idiot again!!” Teruko huffs, shaking Tachihara.
“Don’t send him right back to his sickbed,” Tetchou comments, striding over. Their neutral expression is tinged with a hint of relief, utterly noticeable to their fellow knights.
“Then we couldn’t give him his gift,” Kuniko runs over, pouting.
Tachihara sits up, leaning against Teruko. “Huh?”
Higuchi follows after Kuniko, smiling. “Well… since you’ve been recovering and haven’t had the chance to, we got you an outfit for the masquerade.”
“I- what? But how expensive–”
“We paid for it.” Jouno butts in, scowling. “So don’t be ungrateful.”
“I’m not, I’m not. Thank you- oof-”
Kuniko flops on him too, giggling. “You’re welcome!”
He looks up, past the two trapping him on the ground, and smiles a little at everyone else, Fukuchi included. Though he can tell that his captain is tired. There’s less energy to his stance than usual, and his hair–the lion mane it usually is aside–isn’t quite brushed.
Higuchi hands the gift over, and Tachihara stares in awe at it. It’s a pretty embroidered suit, black with orange patterns that bring out his hair. The shiny metallic buttons bring out his eyes, as do the ruffles on the suit that look like liquid gold. The mask is reminiscent of a hound, with a pointed snoot. It’s mainly black, but the orange patterns decorate it too. Gold is sprinkled in here and there; the nose shines with it, the ears have it inside, and the mask has freckles which glimmer in the light.
Tachihara pulls Higuchi into the hug on the floor too.
–
The night of the masquerade is a beautiful one. Tachihara steps into the ballroom, with a chandelier sparkling above and lanterns dotted around the room emitting a warm glow as the moon accents it all through a stained glass illustration of wolves hunting down a creature unseen except for a scaly tail. It still hurts to breathe, but he doesn’t let it bother him. Beautiful music echoes through the room, played by the best bards the kingdom has to offer.
He looks around, hoping someone might make a move and offer to dance with him first. He spies Higuchi waltzing with a beautiful dame in a dress of sky blue, her mask like a snarling dog’s while Higuchi’s is more akin to a buzzing bee. Kuniko is chatting away at the table of food with Junichiro Tanizaki’s little sister Naomi, and they both look to be enjoying themselves. One of Steinbeck’s sisters comes over, waving at them. This one doesn’t have a little toddler running after her like a duckling, so Tachihara assumes it’s Ruthie. Kuniko and Naomi both smile.
The priest of the kingdom’s chapel is trying to fend off the jester, but ultimately failing. Tachihara watches as sheep-masked Nathaniel is swept into a dance by dove-masked Nikolai, but he averts his gaze when Nikolai leans in and Nathaniel does nothing but snap at him instead of stop him.
And then someone grasps Tachihara’s hand. He looks over immediately, golden eyes meeting gleaming silver ones.
The dragon leans in, its mask a stunning replica of its true form, and growls, voice as ragged as before, in his ear. “Even without myself there, the very echo of my presence nearly slaughtered you.”
Tachihara’s entire body shivers. “Am I meant to run now?” He whispers back, but the dragon pulls him into a dance.
“You had your chance. And we both know you wouldn’t dream of it.” Its laugh is the ghost of one.
Tachihara listens to it like it’s the noise of a songbird. “Can I get your name?”
The dragon tilts its head, considering it first. Then, it leans in close again, so that Tachihara can see its face behind the mask, and says, “Ryuunosuke.”
“..Michizo.” He murmurs back, after a moment, trying to memorize every detail that it’s allowing him to see, “Tachihara Michizo.”
“You’re fascinating, Michizo.” It spins him. “Such a bold knight.”
He’s glad to have a mask which can hide the shade of red his face goes. “Really?”
“You’re a fool.” It continues, dipping him, its gloved hand–he can feel the claws digging ever so slightly into his back–keeping him from falling. “Quite a rare one.”
Tachihara swallows, feeling devoured whole by those eyes . “Yeah?”
“I could kill you so, so easily.” It pulls him back up, its hot breath tickling his neck.
He nods quickly, trying to keep up with the dance. “Is that meant to drive me away?”
A pause. It feels like time stills and his heart skips a beat.
“Oh.” It tilts its head, staring at him. Its grasp on him tightens. “Meet me outside.”