Reliable Wind, the new start

It wasn't like he wasn't interested in life, it was just nothing ever happened. Raku sat on a barrel in the docks of North Santans waiting for his master to return. The scenery in Santans was supposed to be the most beautiful in the world, of course, when the world around you is pitch black; there isn't much for you to be awed by. He traced the scar that ran down his left eye and then the one that had almost completely faded on his right. A thirteen year old criminal wasn't that rare in towns like these, which meant he was able to do as he pleased. Well almost. 1

Moving around was no problem for Raku, he had a sixth sense and never stumbled either.2

Raku felt the cold breeze sweep past his face and a familiar scent carried along with it, an undeniably recognisable one at that. The smell of sweat and cologne that was overly expensive and unnaturally strong. Of course, there was only one person in the world that would have such a bad taste in perfume. Heavy footsteps coming towards him made his face light up with a cheeky, yet sincere smile.3

"Saizo, you finished playing with women?" Raku asked cheekily and felt a heavily muscled arm sweep around his shoulder nearly knocking him off the barrel altogether.4

"That's Mr Saizo to you ya cheeky kid." It was a husky but kind voice that replied and once again Raku was hit by a strong whiff of the cologne that clung so strongly to this man.5

"When did you get the nerve to ask me such a thing Raku?"6

Another person was with Saizo, Raku only noticed when he heard the soft noise of a woman clearing her throat.7

'Obviously thinks he's forgotten about her.' Raku thought hiding the slightly knowing smile as he nudged Saizo making him pay attention to her once again.8

'She's probably an Heiress from a noble's family; no doubt something useless was stolen from her.'9

Even without his sight Raku could tell her eyes had looked at him with disgust, but the thought of that made him happy. If he got the attention of a noble, even for a bad reason it was good enough.10

"She's definitely a penny-waster. Oh and we’ve been paid a lot of those pennies to take her to Nelka by boat, so try to behave." Saizo whispered in Raku's ear brushing past his cheek and walking over to the impatient lady.11

"Ah right, Forgive me. This is Raku Vanse; he is my right hand and will be working to make your trip as comfortable as possible, Lady Isere"12

'Tch, Lazy Bastard. Simply dumping the work on my. Damn slave driving old geezer'13

Raku continued to smile politely despite the curses and irritated objections he made in his mind.14

Raku sensed the woman's hesitance to even by near him, she was a noble after all, why would she want to be surrounded by mucky, fighting, plain escorts.15

"Well now that the introductions are over, we plan on setting sail straight away." Saizo's loud and commanding voice stated snapping them both out of their daydreaming.16

"I trust you don't have any objections, Miss Isere" 17

Raku heard Saizo stride off towards the ship without waiting for her response and he pushed himself off the barrel about to follow.18

A bad nudged his back and his stopped 'I'm too filthy to be touched with even a gloved hand?' he wondered, oh well, a job was a job.19

"Miss Isere? Is there anything I can do for you?"20

There was a long silence before she cleared her throat "Understand this, I am paying a lot of money and I expe-"21

"You expect to be treated as you should. You do not want to be treated like one of us, nor do you want to be associated with us for any period longer than this trip. That's close isn't it?"22

Raku let out a small sigh before walking to the end of the wharf and slowly walking up the boardwalk. He made it halfway before a scream came from behind him.2323

"Help me! I'm going to fall!"24

The woman had followed quickly, oblivious to her high heels she had begun up the ramp and fallen off balance when the heel struck uneven ground.25

From her yelling Raku guessed she'd fallen from the left side and stepped back down reaching for her hand. A foolish mistake for dealing with a noble. She snatched at his hand firmly gripping his wrist and almost immediately putting her full weight on him.26

As with most boardwalks, this one wasn't thick enough to have more than 2 people walking along side and as Raku pulled her up she overstepped pushing him back. "Useless boardwalk, she muttered as if it was a plank off woods fault that she had chosen high heels for this journey.27

Realising she still had a firm hold of his wrist she slapped his arm away with disgust.28

With her now taking up almost all the side of the boardwalk he was standing on it was inevitable that Raku fell off.29

He hit the water with a hard splash as expected of someone who wasn't able to prepare for the landing, his body felt the icy cold water and as he sank deeper he cursed his luck for not knowing how to swim.30

'Uhn..Stupid woman..You’ll never survive this trip.'31

The icy water numbed his body and his mind as his consciousness faded. He kicked with all his strength one last time hoping for something to happen and right before he blacked out, he felt strong arms wrap around him. ‘The Hands of death....or...?'32

********************33

"..ku...ra..ku.."34

A damp sticky feeling was the first thing Raku noticed when he woke up. As expected for him, everything was dark which meant he hadn't decided on his fate yet.35

He became aware of a slightly rough rocking, it was one he recognised and as he began coughing up water he felt a slightly happy spark light in his chest.36

"Are you alright kiddo?"37

Saizo knelt down beside Raku putting a hand on his back and watching the boy cough the water up. He gave him an encouraging whack on the back which made him cough harder before flopping onto his back38

"S-Saizo..bastard."39

"I take it your in perfect health then" Saizo beamed and sat with his back against a wall.40

Raku and Saizo stayed in silence for a while before Raku made an attempt at sitting up. As soon as he was halfway his body became heavier than he remembered it had ever felt. He sank back and found this time he pressed against a warm chest rather than a cold floor, Saizo had moved behind him.41

"I didn't know you were the type to risk your life for a noble" Saizo commented dragging his fingers through Raku's matted wet hair.42

"Meh, neither did I." Raku replied before adding "So how is the princess doing?"43

That got a hearty chuckle from Saizo and his chest moved roughly before stopping. 44

Saizo pulled his arms around Raku making him quickly feel warm.45

'wonder how many women he does this to' Just thinking that but put him off slightly.46

"She's as you'd expect. She had a go at the cook for the food he made, A complaint about not being able to shower. And of course her room wasn't big enough."47

Raku smiled to himself "Hn, so now?"48

"She went to sleep after inspecting that no room was bigger than hers."49

Raku thought about it, this would definately be a tiring journey if he was left in charge of her.50

He found himself thinking back to when he'd first met Saizo, it had been before the light had been taken out of his world.51

Both of Raku's parents had been killed when a group of nobles decided that they'd 'play' with the lives of a poor village just outside the border.52

The village was really small and as such it wasn't recognised as a town worth protecting. Many people had been sold into slavery, or killed in the fights that had ensued.53

Raku, wasn't as lucky as being put into slavery. After picking a fight with one of the soldiers he found himself thrown right into the middle of an underground battle tournament for the 'precious' nobles. 54

It was then Raku met Saizo for the first time, they got along pretty well and Raku saw Saizo as an older brother figure.55

Three days after Raku had been taken there, his first battle came up. It was also, the last time he'd seen Saizo's smiling face.56

Whenever Raku thought back on the fight it made his blood turn cold. It had been almost completely onsided and he'd barely survived with his life. If it hadn't been for him accidently tripping his opponent and the off chance the guy went down on his own dagger...Raku knew he would've died that day. He also knew he'd paid a price for his life. His sight.57

Even after losing his sight nothing changed, Saizo still treated him like he always did. When he spoke it was almost as if Raku could still imagine his warm smile.58

About 2 weeks after that all of had happened Raku had healed up pretty well, sight excluded. 59

Saizo suddenly declared they were escaping and Raku thought for sure he'd be left behind 'why would they need me to help...' So when he found himself being pulled down the hallways as fast as they could run he was completely bewildered.60

"Oi! You listening?"61

Raku jumped slightly and blinked as he realised Saizo had his arm on Raku's head and was waving his hand in front of his face.62

"I was just saying how you and Ise-"63

Raku was too tired and fell asleep before hearing the rest.64

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"Uh..right!" Raku shot up from his bed, he didn't remember getting in it, but to him those were small details, and he didn't have much need for small details. Stretching Raku smiled heading onto the deck, he was in a really good mood everyone who saw him seemed to notice. They were pretty much all like a close family. After-all, excluding Isere all of them were people who'd escaped that night with him and Saizo.66

"This feels great!" Raku declared leaning against the bow and facing the direction of the sea.67

"Ehem.." 68

Raku blinked as Isere coughed politely from behind him. It wasn't a 'listen now' cough like the others, more of a 'excuse me'.69

"Oh right, Miss Isere. I-" he turned around waiting for her to continue. Unknown to him Isere fiddled with a shirt that was too big for her. She'd been advised by Saizo that it would be much easier than going around in a ball gown and high heels.70

"I-I..." she paused and then swallowed "I'm very sorry for my actions yesterday!" She bowed embarrassed and then grew even more embarrassed when she realised he couldn't see her.71

There was silence and then Raku broke out into a big grin turning back to face the sea.72

"No Prob'.It certainly provided entertainment anyway." he thought to the previous night "Though..."73

"Y-yes?" Isere seemed sincere enough so he made up his mind.74

"If you could help around here until we reach the destination, that'd be most welcome"75

Isere replied she'd do her best but Raku didn't hear her. He'd already gone back to daydreaming about what he thought the sun waves and sun looked like. A breeze brushed against his face like it had before they'd left. It mingled with a certain smell that made him excited. He knew something big would happen.76

"I'll be waiting" He said happily and Isere blinked confused.77

"Waiting for what?"78

Raku heard her this time. "For whatever's waiting for me"79

He was content with that answer 80

'whatever...is waiting for me...'81