fanfic; cultivation; part 2

[acperience]

▶ Part 1

—

It takes a few days for Tiir to learn that Minato is remarkably average, both in school and around the orphanage. The boy does everything that he’s told, neither quite efficiently nor inefficiently. He wouldn’t stand out, were it not for the possible eeriness of this, as well as his quietness.

Tiir doesn’t mind, however. Minato is still a good kid, as far as he’s concerned—kind and innocent, and that alone makes up for any quirks he might have. Even Lafra notes Tiir’s strange fondness for the child, considering that he typically doesn’t show much attachment to anyone who isn’t “like him”.

But Tiir knows.

—Minato’s so like him in some ways, and so unlike him in others.

To others, though—

“He’s kind of creepy,” one of the older children says. Tiir’s only vaguely acquainted with him, but all he needs to know that he isn’t a friend. The boy is speaking to a blond-haired figure, whom Tiir more firmly recognizes as Walter, an old acquaintance—also not his friend, fortunately. Walter seems uninterested in the conversation, his expression as flat as ever with his arms crossed.

Tiir narrows his eyes, approaches them, and punches the first boy in the jaw. He sends him flying a good few feet, landing roughly on the ground. Before the boy even has a chance to react, Tiir walks over and begins stomping on his head—not hard enough to do any real damage, but enough so that it’ll certainly hurt.

“The hell—!?”

“Shut up.” A stomp.

“Goddamn red—”

Tiir smirks widely. “What—a red-eyed freak?”

A footstep from behind Tiir reminds him of the other business that he needs to take care of, so he relents—but not before grabbing his victim by the collar and throwing him down the hall.

“Leave,” he says, which the boy appears all too happy to comply with. Tiir watches him flee for a moment, likely all too happy to get away from his violent and probably slightly crazy fellow orphan. Once he disappears, Tiir spins on his heel and stalks over to Walter, who seems to have been about to leave.

Tiir punches him in the face.

Walter, to his credit, manages to mostly stay standing, instead stumbling back a few steps. Once he recovers, he holds up his hand to his face, glaring at Tiir between his fingers.

“What was that for?”

Blood trickles down to his chin, presumably from his nose. Tiir can’t help but smirk slightly at that—he hopes he broke it.

“You should’ve defended him,” he replies nonchalantly. Walter opens his mouth, though he soon shuts it and shifts his gaze to a point behind Tiir, who turns around, eyes widening in surprise.

Not far down, holding onto the corner where the two halls meet, stands Minato, looking as blank as usual.

—How long has he been watching?

Tiir stares for a few seconds, before he manages a bright and—what he hopes to be—reassuring smile, with eyes he knows are blue again.

“Ah, Minato. I’m sorry—did I frighten you?” Whatever impression Minato had of the teenager, it probably wasn’t that he went around beating people up.

Minato, however, shakes his head and speaks softly.

“… You didn’t need to do that.”

Tiir tilts his head. “Of course I did. He was making fun of you.”

Walter makes some kind of noise from behind him. Tiir ignores him.

Minato merely shakes his head again. Tiir lets out a light laugh.

“Don’t worry about it. He’ll be fine. I—” Tiir stops himself. Somehow, he doubts that it’s a good idea to tell Minato that he’s gotten into so many fights that the orphanage has given up on disciplining him.

He smiles again, turning slightly so that he can see both Minato and Walter.

“Have you met Walter here?”

Minato takes a step closer and stares. Walter meets his gaze for a moment, before looking away—apparently not enough to miss Tiir’s brief glare, however, as he glances back at the black-haired boy.

Tiir sighs quietly. It figures that Walter would be difficult about this on top of, well, nearly everything.

“Minato, this is Walter. Walter, this is Minato. He arrived recently.”

He places a hand on Walter’s shoulder, digging in slightly to get his message across. Walter shoots him a sharp look before brushing his hand off.

“Hello,” Minato says.

Walter glances at him, before moving to walk away. Tiir has half a mind to grab him and keep him there, but he knows that it won’t do any good, and so lets him leave. Once Walter is gone, Tiir turns to Minato, smiling sheepishly.

“Sorry, Walter’s a bit rude. Don’t be like him, all right?”

Minato blinks, before shaking his head for a third time, slowly. “… He’s a good person.”

Tiir isn’t sure whether to stare, choke on air, or burst into laughter at that. He decides the first option would probably be the best, before patting Minato on the head.

“If you say so. Now, are you busy?”

—

The one thing Minato is not average at, as Tiir discovers, is checkers. Rather, no matter how easy Tiir goes on him, Minato always loses. It’s actually a little baffling.

Fortunately, despite his less than stellar checker skills and/or luck, Minato never seems to get bored, and as long as he’s entertained, so is Tiir. And so, as evening falls, they start up their seventeenth game, which Tiir has a feeling that Minato will also lose.

Sitting not too far away from them is Walter, reading a book and pointedly ignoring everyone else’s presence. He’s been an expert of that for all the years he’s been in the orphanage (when Tiir isn’t punching him in the face, that is).

Minato apparently doesn’t feel like returning the favour, though, as he looks up at him.

“Do you want to join us…?”

Walter doesn’t even look at him.

“No.”

“It’s all right, Minato. Checkers is meant for two people only,” Tiir tells him. Minato glances at the board, before looking at Walter again. Before he can speak—assuming he was even going to—Pueka pokes her head into the room.

“Tiir, I’m sorry…” she says, glancing at Minato and Walter before turning back to Tiir. “But were you the one who made the mess?”

“Mess?” Tiir repeats. He looks to Walter, whose nose is still red. “Unless Walter dripped blood all over the floor, I wouldn’t call what I did a mess…”

Walter glares at him.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Pueka says. “Someone made a mess in the kitchen. There’s cutlery all over the floor.”

It’s not much of a surprise that Tiir would be the first suspect. Aside from the fact that he does spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, anyone who’s known him for a while knows of his history of fights. Consequently, any incident tends to be initially blamed on him.

Sometimes, he’s at fault. Half the time, however, he’s innocent.

“No, I’ve been here playing checkers with Minato,” replies Tiir, gesturing to the board. “And Walter can attest to where I was earlier.”

Pueka nods, as a girl passes by. “All right. I’ll have to keep searching, then. It’s strange, though. A lot of the spoons are missing now…”

The girl freezes. Tiir doesn’t miss it.

“Pueka, beside you.”

Pueka turns to look at the newcomer, before looking back at Tiir. Smiling gently, he stands up and walks over to the girl, who now looks a tad nervous. She seems to be somewhere in her preteens, with messy black hair and, most importantly to Tiir, bright red eyes.

—Interesting.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?” Though Tiir may not intimately know each and every orphan here, he’s fairly certain that he’s seen them all, at least, and he never forgets a face.

The girl nods. Tiir continues smiling, even as he asks—

“Where did you put the spoons?”

Pueka blinks at the accusation, phrased as a question. The girl appears to think for a moment, before replying,

“Guriko didn’t put them anywhere.”

“Is that so?” Tiir says, still calm. “Well then. Why did you take them?”

Again, there’s a pause, before the girl—Guriko, apparently—stands up straight, pointing straight at Tiir.

“As a delicate flower in this strange and foreign place, Guriko had to arm herself! Guriko did not mean to make a mess; however, as your spoons were very difficult to find, she had no choice but to search thoroughly,” she declares. Tiir blinks at the pointer finger in his face, before smiling again.

“You have them all on your person? That’s rather impressive.”

“Guriko is very impressive, yes,” Guriko agrees.

Tiir holds out his hand. “May we have some back, please? It’ll be rather hard to eat if we don’t have enough spoons.”

Guriko looks at the hand for a while, before, with a flick of her wrist, she holds three spoons, dropping them into Tiir’s hand. She repeats the process a few times, until he’s in possession of fifteen spoons.

Tiir blinks. “How many did you take?”

“Twenty,” Guriko answers. “Guriko will be keeping the other five.”

“That’s fair,” Tiir says, nodding. He’d rather not risk pushing for all of them, lest Guriko change her mind regarding her charity. “Thank you.”

He looks back into the room, where Walter is still reading. Minato, on the other hand, seems to have been watching them the entire time with an owlish look. Tiir turns back to Guriko, making a mental note to speak with a worker about her, though not for the reasons one might imagine.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself to everyone here?” Tiir suggests. Guriko shifts weight between her feet for a few moments, before pointing a spoon into the room. More towards Walter than Minato, though, which, needless to say, Tiir is amused by.

“My name is Gankyuu Eguriko. When you talk to me, call me Guriko. If you don't want to call me that, then don't talk to me. If you leave me alone, I'm pretty docile, so don't come near me.”

Tiir blinks again. Pueka stares.

“Talkative people die, noisy people should die too,” Guriko continues. “I don't like people who can't mind their own business either, so you die as well!”

She waves the spoon.

“If you annoy Guriko… I'll scoop out your eyeball!”

Walter keeps reading. Minato is either staring at Guriko or zoning out. Somewhere, a cricket is probably chirping.

Guriko nods to herself, apparently pleased, before walking away. A few moments of silence pass as Tiir shares a look with Pueka.

“Um…” Pueka begins. Tiir shrugs and walks back to the checkerboard.

“Well,” he says. “At least we won’t have to worry about it being too quiet around here.”

—

Four games later and Tiir is the winner of twenty checker games. Minato, fortunately, is a very graceful loser.

—

▶ Part 3