Chapter Text
It was on a warm winter day when the first signs of spring peeked out from the cold earth that Izumi held another meeting in the studio. Without any preamble, he declared that even without Ou-sama providing them with a steady supply of weapons, even with their soul rotting away, Knights would move forward and practice until their voices grew hoarse and their muscles crumbled under the strain. With the DreFes system becoming a major factor in their new grading rubric, booking a proper practice room became nigh impossible without allying one’s unit with the student council or without months and months of waiting.
Despite technically being under the Student Council’s jurisdiction thanks to Ritsu’s surprisingly amicable relationship with the new student president, Knights still faced an upwards battle with their piss poor reputation that had been dragged in the mud not only by their past actions but their inactivity also played a part in the disdain students still held for them. Thus their position was similar to one of the outsiders, left in the cemetery to die a dog’s pitiful death. Practicing in the studio was a fool's errand, with the abundance of equipment leaving only a sliver of space that made it impossible to use as a proper practice area.
So Knights returned to their darker roots and claimed the newly erected cenotaph as their training grounds, constructed in the memory of those who had lost all hope. Doing so was grounds for punishment, yet the trio reasoned that if no one knew, no harm would be done and no harm meant no foul. It had been Izumi’s idea, claiming that no one even went there with their freshly bleeding wounds and numerous skeletons still painfully exposed despite signs that someone was going there regularly to clean the stone slab. It also proved to be an ideal practice spot as an area closed off by the surrounding forest where they could sing and dance without any distractions.
Arashi thought it was perfect.
It was like they were offering a ballad for those whose dreams had been crushed, performing for the princesses whose dreams had been trapped in a tower of despair and helplessness by a cruel emperor, for those who saw no other option but to walk off the edge. Their song and dance wouldn’t bring back those who the monument was built for, but if it was only to soothe their spirits from beyond the veil, Arashi would take pride and lay her sword down for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. She smiled when Ritsu didn’t raise any objections either, in fact advocating for the space as the overarching trees blocked out the oppressive sunlight. Just like that, it was decided that their new practice space would be in the clearing the cenotaph was located in. Slowly but surely, she could begin to see Knights’ noble image that they had smeared mud on and besmirched shine through their sins and wrongdoings.
Arashi didn’t join in the practice sessions immediately, her heart still tied down with past regrets and other obligations, namely her modeling work. Though each time she took a break near the forests while ‘attending’ Track practice or walked through the field on her way home and heard a beautiful song float from the woods sung by a hoarse voice, she smiled knowing that Izumi was slowly healing in his own way.
Sometimes she would hear a softer voice join in, an enchanting duet that flew above the pain and the hurt, taking wing under the shade of the trees and she felt drawn to join in and add her own voice to the requiem they held in their hearts. But every time she simply tightened the grip on her bag and kept walking, heart yearning to join in yet the shackles of the past were not so easily thrown off. She did find them loosening as she fell back into an old routine with Mika, meaningless conversations traded with only a desk separating them as Valkyrie slowly rose back up from the heap of ashes it had buried itself under.
It was only until pink blush began to colour the trees that Arashi found herself walking down the path to the cenotaph for a reason other than to ruminate on her thoughts or to clean the dirt off the memorial. When Izumi caught a glimpse of her undyed straw blonde hair and wired glasses tucked away into her breast pocket, he said nothing, simply stopping and restarting the song from the beginning, a wordless invitation. Together they moved, breaths never matching up as they screamed their pain into the wind. Their hearts beat asynchronously, yet they let their tired voices ring throughout the small enclosed area, bodies straining against the weight of failure and Arashi had never before felt freer than at that moment.
As time marched on, the winds turned warm as skies opened up for the tears of spring to wet the earth. With the change in the weather came the first practice the three had together in a long while. All three of them arrived at the cenotaph separately by accident, no prior indication having alerted any of them that they would all gather in this secret grove of theirs. There was no fanfare, no talk, yet they all fell into position as they let their aching muscles speak for them. Their broken voices mingled with the hurt that permeated the space, enriching their song into a requiem that filled the clearing with new life. Arashi could feel the air lighten around them, an invisible barrier conquered and broken down to draw them all closer as a team, as a family. By the time the last notes escaped their scratchy throats, Arashi swore she saw Izumi’s lips pull into a smile before he snapped at Ritsu for one misstep or another and demanded that they try again.
Practices where all three of them remained scarce, but Arashi felt pride swell in her chest each time they all got together hearing their voices became clearer and clearer, the hurt and the pain slowly fading into an underscore that spurred on their conquest into the unknown.
Swayed to the music, Arashi’s shoes scuffed the ground as she stepped forward, one arm lifted high above her head and the other outstretched as she walked on her toes, three steps to the right, a hop before spinning around to bow low with her raised hand lowering to rest over her breast. Ritsu’s voice cracked as the note he sang sputtered and died out yet they didn’t stop, their limbs moving despite the heavy chains that tied them down. Izumi took up the sword that Ritsu had dropped, his powerful voice shaking with the burden of the lyrics weighing heavily on him.
Perhaps the weight was also physical as Izumi stumbled, hands darting out to cushion his fall as dirt was sent flying everywhere. Arashi shrieked, her own balance compromised as she lifted her hands to protect her face from any imperfections. Once the dust settled, she gasped, one hand over her mouth at the sight of dirt staining both Izumi’s practice uniform and the pristine cenotaph, her legs carrying her over to kneel beside her fallen senior. “Izumi-chan! Are you okay?” She fretted, hands uncertain in placement as she stretched a finger out to cautiously poke the buried shoulder of her fellow model.
A grumble was the response she got for her prodding and she sighed in relief. “Really Izumi-chan. You need to be more careful.” She scolded, lips pursed as she gently rolled Izumi over and helped him sit up properly. “What would people say when they see a model’s face all scratched up and covered in dirt?”
“Shut up, Oka-” there was an awkward silence before Izumi coughed. “Naru-kun.” He corrected, catching himself before he could say anything truly hurtful. While she was grateful that Izumi was trying to change and was learning to call her by names that made her more comfortable, it still hurt that he slipped up occasionally. It had been a few months after their conversation and Ritsu made the adjustment from Nakkun to Nacchan quite smoothly, yet Izumi still found it difficult to phase out unsavoury name calling from his vocabulary. While she understood that these things took time and it was simply Izumi's nature to use barbed words as his shield, she wished that it wasn’t so hard for him to stop using such negative terms for her identity. “Stop touching me, I’m fine. Jeez, what are you, my mother? So~o annoying.” Izumi grumbled, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Pouting, Arashi let Izumi have his space, leaning back on her heels. “Well someone has to be the responsible one here. Goodness knows what type of trouble you impulsive children would get into if I wasn’t here.” She sighed, holding her cheek in her hand, staring at Izumi sympathetically. Apparently, this angered her senior as his beautiful face twisted up in a confrontational scowl, a loud “Hah?!” escaping those pristine soft lips. “Really Izumi-chan, sometimes letting the heart and the brain make all the decisions is such a bad idea. I know I get hot blooded sometimes, but admit that I played a big part in dragging ourselves out of the mud.”
“And inflate your ridiculously large ego even further? Pass.” Izumi scrunched up his nose, brushing the dirt from his palms. Arashi gasped, offended that Izumi believed that her ego was overinflated. She had simply had perfectly healthy levels of self love, thank you very much. In the hostile and unforgiving battlefield called life, warriors needed to adapt to survive and loving herself above anything else was simply another layer in her armour protecting her fragile heart.
Instead of venting her frustrations, however, Arashi locked them in the growing corner of her heart reserved for unpleasant emotions, simply pouting. “Izumi-chan, you really have to stop being so mean to this poor maiden, her glass heart really can’t take rejection well.” She chided, offering a hand to her senior. “Ritsu-chan can vouch for me, right?” A beat passed with no answer and Izumi had the audacity to snort while pulling himself up with Arashi’s help.
“See, even Kuma-kun agrees with me,” Izumi smirked, that infuriatingly smug tug of his lips made Arashi fume in good sport. Opening her mouth to lovingly chew out the black haired idol, Arashi turned and instead of seeing Ritsu being his normal lazy self, she saw…. Well, she saw nothing. Just the slightly dirt smudged cenotaph.
Blinking, Arashi hurried the few paces needed to maneuver around the cenotaph as worry bubbled up within her. To suddenly have one of your friends disappear suddenly would naturally set off multiple alarm bells in her mind. There was no sign of Ritsu even when she rounded the corner and she worriedly took a few paces forward only to trip right over a pliant body. Catching herself with a shriek before any real damage could be wrought upon her priceless body, Arashi sighed as the worry built up within her chest was expelled in that one motion. Of course, if anyone could fall asleep in the short time she and Izumi had been arguing, it would be Ritsu.
Sighing, she knelt down to roll over the lump of the ground just to confirm that, yes it indeed was the nocturnal vampire and not a random dead body or something to that effect. However, a flash of red caught her eye as the undergrowth trembled ever so slightly accompanied by the shifting of grass. Sharing an uneasy glance with Izumi, the two stiffened again as a branch cracked underfoot and as if an unspoken order was issued between them, they all made the executive decision to book it.
It was a shock to see Ritsu scramble to his feet so quickly as the three ran as if their lives depended on it with Arashi taking the lead, adrenaline enhancing her already impressive physical ability. Her long legs carried her through the undergrowth, crashing through the foliage uncaring of the noise as they made their frantic escape. Izumi’s half hearted complaints followed close behind as Ritsu brought up the rear, keeping up remarkably well despite the fact that he was scrambling to keep up on all fours for some reason, his usual sleepy disposition nowhere to be seen.
A smile bloomed over her face even as they all sprinted away from potential suspension, their breaths coming out in heaving synchronized pants. With the scenery around her blurring, they trampled through a row of bushes to take one of the side paths less commonly used. Her heart was thundering in her ears by the time Arashi burst into the courtyard, leaves and twigs stuck to her practice clothes and she took a gasping breath to drag in much needed oxygen.
A small yelp had her throwing a look over her shoulder to see that Ritsu had rolled head over heels, a small ball of black hair and pale skin sprawling onto the rough gravel. Before she knew it, Izumi had passed her and her own hand shot out, gripping Ritsu’s wrist and tugging another high pitched sound from the older’s mouth as Arashi’s feet began to move once again
It was laughably easy to overtake Izumi much to the other’s chagrin as they fled with hearts leaping out of their chests and warm muscles straining to whisk them away to a safer place. A hysterical bout of giggles welled up within her breast as she ran into the school. The trio thundered up the stairs, Ritsu stumbling after her, dragged along by the iron grip she held on his wrist with Izumi hot on their heels as they all hurtled towards the Studio, all connected by a common goal.
The laminated floor squeaked under all three of their uneven footsteps and for the first time in a very long while, Arashi felt like things would turn out okay.