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spira_rpKadaj had not gone back to the Palace.
The initial shock after he'd left had hit him late. Alone for the first time in a long, long time, he'd cried, and shook, and wondered if there'd been another way, one that hadn't put at risk as much as he had. There hadn't been. He could have told people, or he could have just run, like Tayuya had said, but there was no getting away from Khamja or the individuals that made it, and sooner or later it would have caught up to him and nothing would have been fixed. If he'd told Kuja, then what? Kuja wasn't infallible, and Kadaj couldn't spend his whole life hiding behind Kuja's skirts.
He had to hope that in his absence people were keeping their word. In the meantime, swallowing his emotions and plowing forwards because it was the only way there was to go, Kadaj used his time away from everyone to work with Souba on his Bankai. He'd need to be better than he had been when he'd left before he could go back. He met someone who helped him train, for a while, and it was a sharp learning curve for Kadaj. Kyuzo was the first person Kadaj had met from whom Kadaj gained something, but expected nothing of Kadaj in return. That alone had been a shock. He was stoic, and quiet, and extremely good at dual wielding. Kadaj wasn't anywhere near as good, even now, but he'd improved, and had the foundations to continue improving by the time they'd parted ways.
Kadaj had taken up mark hunting under Kyuzo's tutelage, and had continued it since they'd split. The money was usually good, and Kadaj felt a new kind of pride at being able to pay his own way with money he'd made himself. He specialised in Fiends because they were what Souba was designed for, and some hunters wouldn't touch them because they were a lot harder to kill with conventional weapons. It was a niche market which Kadaj was well placed to exploit.
His most recent hunt had taken him near Rabanastre. He doubted that taking on a Fiend hunt in Gin's back garden would go unnoticed by Gin, but the Gotei Divisions were always pushed hard, and Dalmasca was big, and the Fiend, in the end, wasn't worth a Captain's attention, but had succeeded in making enough of a nuisance of itself that someone was willing to pay for it to be made to go away for good in a hurry. It was getting late when he'd finished, and the desert got cold at night, and was no place for someone alone to try and stay, or travel through at night, even if they were Kadaj.
Rabanastre was dangerous territory, too. They knew that a number of Clans that Khamja preferred to avoid were active there, but if Kadaj kept his head down and avoided the known clan pubs, he'd probably be okay for a night. So he hoped. Besides, he could really do with someone to look at the bike. Yylfordt was good, and had designed and built every scrap of the bike himself, but recently the bike had developed a shudder in the front when Kadaj hit the brakes. It had taken some heavy riding, and Kadaj had come off more than once already, so it was probably worth getting an Al Bhed to check it out, since going back to Yylfordt was out of the equation right now.
Decision made, he rode in to Rabanastre as the sun was starting to set. Kusanagi was strapped to the bike; a change Kadaj had made himself since riding with a sword that cuts through anything strapped to yourself was a bad plan. Rabanastre was unfamiliar territory for Kadaj, so he stopped the bike and killed the engine. He didn't want to try riding around a busy city with brakes that weren't right; it was safer from here, to push. If he came off the bike here, or worse, hit someone, it could easily attract attention.
He checked Souba was at his side as he got off to push.
The initial shock after he'd left had hit him late. Alone for the first time in a long, long time, he'd cried, and shook, and wondered if there'd been another way, one that hadn't put at risk as much as he had. There hadn't been. He could have told people, or he could have just run, like Tayuya had said, but there was no getting away from Khamja or the individuals that made it, and sooner or later it would have caught up to him and nothing would have been fixed. If he'd told Kuja, then what? Kuja wasn't infallible, and Kadaj couldn't spend his whole life hiding behind Kuja's skirts.
He had to hope that in his absence people were keeping their word. In the meantime, swallowing his emotions and plowing forwards because it was the only way there was to go, Kadaj used his time away from everyone to work with Souba on his Bankai. He'd need to be better than he had been when he'd left before he could go back. He met someone who helped him train, for a while, and it was a sharp learning curve for Kadaj. Kyuzo was the first person Kadaj had met from whom Kadaj gained something, but expected nothing of Kadaj in return. That alone had been a shock. He was stoic, and quiet, and extremely good at dual wielding. Kadaj wasn't anywhere near as good, even now, but he'd improved, and had the foundations to continue improving by the time they'd parted ways.
Kadaj had taken up mark hunting under Kyuzo's tutelage, and had continued it since they'd split. The money was usually good, and Kadaj felt a new kind of pride at being able to pay his own way with money he'd made himself. He specialised in Fiends because they were what Souba was designed for, and some hunters wouldn't touch them because they were a lot harder to kill with conventional weapons. It was a niche market which Kadaj was well placed to exploit.
His most recent hunt had taken him near Rabanastre. He doubted that taking on a Fiend hunt in Gin's back garden would go unnoticed by Gin, but the Gotei Divisions were always pushed hard, and Dalmasca was big, and the Fiend, in the end, wasn't worth a Captain's attention, but had succeeded in making enough of a nuisance of itself that someone was willing to pay for it to be made to go away for good in a hurry. It was getting late when he'd finished, and the desert got cold at night, and was no place for someone alone to try and stay, or travel through at night, even if they were Kadaj.
Rabanastre was dangerous territory, too. They knew that a number of Clans that Khamja preferred to avoid were active there, but if Kadaj kept his head down and avoided the known clan pubs, he'd probably be okay for a night. So he hoped. Besides, he could really do with someone to look at the bike. Yylfordt was good, and had designed and built every scrap of the bike himself, but recently the bike had developed a shudder in the front when Kadaj hit the brakes. It had taken some heavy riding, and Kadaj had come off more than once already, so it was probably worth getting an Al Bhed to check it out, since going back to Yylfordt was out of the equation right now.
Decision made, he rode in to Rabanastre as the sun was starting to set. Kusanagi was strapped to the bike; a change Kadaj had made himself since riding with a sword that cuts through anything strapped to yourself was a bad plan. Rabanastre was unfamiliar territory for Kadaj, so he stopped the bike and killed the engine. He didn't want to try riding around a busy city with brakes that weren't right; it was safer from here, to push. If he came off the bike here, or worse, hit someone, it could easily attract attention.
He checked Souba was at his side as he got off to push.
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Date: 2014-01-18 08:21 pm (UTC)He didn't know why he did it. He didn't have anything to settle with her. He had once owed her a debt for saving his life after he escaped from the Shinra Laboratories, but that had since been paid in full. Now she was living in his apartment, eating his food, but still managed to get him to go out and help her sell flowers in order for her to pay her way. Axel had a feeling he was getting a bit of a raw deal. Strangely, he didn't much mind.
The day had been long, though. Long and hot, for all he didn't object at all to Rabanastre's desert climate. He didn't much want to head straight to the Sandsea and Aerith had packed up and taken her remaining flowers and containers home on her cart. He had time to kill, so he headed towards the outer streets, away from the hustle and bustle of both the market and people heading home after work.
The shops there tended to stay open later than the marketplace and inner-city shops, mostly to tempt in travellers weary from the road. It was on his way there that Axel spotted the most unusual sight of a boy dressed head to toe in leather -- in a desert -- pushing a motorbike.
"Now, that isn't something you see every day," he said to himself.
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Date: 2014-01-19 01:35 am (UTC)It was times like now, however, and when he came off the thing, that Kadaj couldn't help but think Yylfordt had got carried away with the designing process.
The bike was large, and Kadaj was short. The bike was also heavy, but Kadaj was stronger than he looked, and could handle the weight of it okay. Picking it up off the floor was difficult, though Kadaj had managed, but pushing it like this probably looked a little comical. The bike was bigger than he was, after all.
He needed somewhere he could put the bike, and somewhere to stay. He paused, and looked around, trying to decide the best direction to head off in; if he could stash the bike, he could find a mechanic later, maybe ask at the inn where he could find one. He'd need somewhere safe, though; he didn't want to come back to find the bike had been stolen, or worse, stripped down and stolen in pieces.
He noticed the redhead staring at him. Real red, he caught himself thinking, not Tayuya 'red'. There were a couple of others as well, noticing the presence of a kid in leather in the desert - and Kadaj wanted an inn with shower facilities - pushing an Al Bhed contraption, but that hair made this guy stand out.
Kadaj continued pushing, keeping an eye out for anyone taking too much of an interest.
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Date: 2014-01-21 11:42 pm (UTC)It was ... interesting to see one. It looked out of place, but the design was so clearly Al Bhed that it didn't seem too incongruous. It made him smile.
The kid had to be suffering with the heat of the desert and the weight of the thing, though. That the bike itself had to be hot to the touch after being in the sun all day can't have helped either. It was lucky that even his gloves were leather. With that in mind, he walked over.
"You all right with that?" He asked, nodding to the bike.
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Date: 2014-01-22 01:32 am (UTC)He wasn't a threat, though. Nothing about his manner suggested he intended to be, and even if he did, Kadaj was far from defenceless. Still, the polite enquiry came as a bit of a surprise, and Kadaj looked up at the guy blankly for a moment. He wasn't used to people being nice from the get go.
There was something off about his eyes, he realised. Kadaj's own eyes had an unusual glow to them, and had since he was very young, but so did this guy. That was... interesting. How did someone in Rabanastre end up with mako glow?
"Do you know where I can find a good mechanic?" He asked, after a second's hesitant consideration in which he looked back down at the bike, and then back up again at Red.
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Date: 2014-01-22 07:18 pm (UTC)He nodded, an easy smile touching his features. "Yeah," he said, ruffling the spiked hair at the back of his head. "It's a bit of a walk, though. It's near the East Gate."
The East Gate. The entrance to the city that lead to the Estersand. Despite leading out to a desert, the East Entrance was quite a prestigious location for a mechanic shop to be. That was the gate that, depending on the season, lead to one of the major commercial routes between the Al Bhed 'city' of Rush Valley and Rabanastre.
Many of the lesser Mechanic shops were located down in Lowtown. The rent was low, but the footfall was high. The mechanics there tended towards repairing household goods, such as dead radios and lights that refused to cast a consistent glow. Small stuff. Not motorbikes.
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Date: 2014-01-22 07:54 pm (UTC)A smile twitched across Kadaj's face at the thought. He'd asked Yylfordt to make him transport, something he could ride, and Yylfordt had.... Well, he'd got a bit carried away. Kadaj loved the bike, and the freedom it gave him, but he had to admit, Yylfordt had designed it for fun, not really for him, and much like the Ragnarok, the bike was one of Yylfordt's machina babies.
He could just picture the look on Yylfordt's face if he found someone had done a hatchet job on his project. It'd be funny for all of thirty seconds, but they'd be a good thirty seconds.
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Date: 2014-01-28 12:18 am (UTC)"The Rockbells are anything but cheap hacks," he grinned, meaning the part about them not being cheap just as much as them not being hacks.
The Rockbell name was well known ... at least within in the right circles. They were known for quality and a specialisation in automail. That wasn't, however, all they dealt with. That would be financial suicide given where their store was located, so they had expanded their workload to cover a wider variety of machina.
"If you want hacks, you'll have to drag that thing-" he jabbed a long finger at the bike, not going as far as to touch the hot metal "-down into Lowtown."
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Date: 2014-01-28 01:26 am (UTC)"I'll pass," he said, with a faint smirk. The name 'Rockbell' sounded familiar, but Kadaj couldn't remember where from. It was possible Yylfordt had mentioned the name at some point, or it might be from somewhere else. If it had been Yylfordt, Kadaj had probably tuned him out; Yylfordt could talk as much as his brother where machina was concerned, and Kadaj didn't even bother to feign polite disinterest, not that it put Yylfordt off regardless. "I'd rather go to the experts," he added, not least because he was the one who had to ride the thing afterwards.
They were probably pricy, but he wasn't short of gil; he'd manage. If necessary, he'd just have to do a few more hunts. There was the money Kuja had given him, what now felt like a long time ago when he'd gone with Grimmjow and Tayuya to visit some Fayths, but he was trying not to touch that; he'd rather be self sufficient.
"So where near the East Gate?" He asked, looking directly up at Red.
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Date: 2014-01-28 06:09 pm (UTC)"I'll show you," he said, his tone rising just enough to imply a question.
Well, he didn't want to impose on the kid if he'd rather find it by himself, but he didn't have any problem taking him there, either.
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Date: 2014-01-28 07:00 pm (UTC)The possibility of attracting unfavourable attention from a criminal contingent somewhere was lower down Kadaj's list of concerns, but two Selkies walking a giant piece of machina through the city were less likely to be troubled by that, too, of course.
"Thanks."
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Date: 2014-01-30 09:04 pm (UTC)He indicated the direction, the only direction at this point, with a jerk of the head and started walking. Still relatively new to the city, Axel didn't know all of the ins and outs of it, but he had a fairly good head for directions and had memorised the routes to the main areas quickly. The backstreets and Lowtown were another story, but they weren't important at the moment.
"You came across the desert on that thing?" He asked, sounding bemused at the thought.
The kid didn't look very old, a few years younger than him, maybe. Nevertheless, he was out on his own, on a gigantic motorcycle, in the middle of nowhere. Rabanastre was an oasis city, which meant a lot in the largely desert-covered country of Dalmasca. No matter where he'd come from, he'd travelled a long way to get there. It was possible that he'd come from Rush Valley, of course, but something told Axel that wasn't likely. Might have been the silver hair.
The weird thing was, was that Axel couldn't place where he might have come from. Originally, or recently. He wasn't good enough at the general geography of the continent to throw out anything but a guess. The kid's eyes made him think of Midgar, but for one thing his accent didn't match up to what he knew about it and for another... well, Midgar wasn't there any more. It was possible that he'd got out before everything went down, or that he was from a city near to there, like ... what was it? Palompolum, or something? But it would have been a weird coincidence. Especially since he'd come from the opposite direction.
In the end, it didn't matter. He was just making idle conversation.
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Date: 2014-01-30 11:54 pm (UTC)He kept half a step behind Red as he pushed the bike ahead of him, and didn't bother to answer the question until the bike was moving easily.
"Yeah," he said, in response, before adding, "I've been travelling around a lot." He knew the area around Rabanastre quite well from previous travels, but the city itself was still unfamiliar territory. "I was in the area, so this was the nearest stop for the night," he shrugged one shoulder as he continued to push, "and I figured I might be able to find a mechanic."
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Date: 2014-02-02 11:06 pm (UTC)Axel wasn't sure why, but the Al Bhed as a race had a split monopoly on technology. They called it Machina, apparently, and anything that wasn't made by them was made by Moogles. It was weird to him that any old person didn't just learn how to build and repair it, like on every other world he'd been on. It was a trade where he was from, but on Spira it was more like a deeply ingrained racial thing that was only now just beginning to leak beyond the Moogle and Al Bhed peoples. Apparently, for years, people distrusted the Al Bhed entirely and, as a result, eschewed their inventions as well.
It was stranger still, to him, that Selkies -- Al Bhed descendants -- didn't have the same knack for it as the their pureblooded ancestors and relatives.
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Date: 2014-02-08 12:25 am (UTC)"So," he asked, continuing to push the bike with relative ease now that it was rolling steadily. Keeping the pace was easy. "What's your name?" He asked, and then decided to add, "If you don't mind me asking?" The guy seemed friendly and helpful enough, but Kadaj would rather seem polite than as if he was prying.
Prying would be asking about the eyes, and the accent, which wasn't out of place in Rabanastre, especially in Rabanastre, but didn't sound local. Kadaj was interested in the answers to those, too, but they might be a bit personal to ask some helpful stranger about.
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Date: 2014-02-11 06:37 pm (UTC)"Lea," he replied, glancing back at him.
'Lea', not 'Axel'. 'Axel' was a known name, an uncommon name, and one that may have been given to people looking for him, either on Xigbar's orders or those of any number of trafficking groups in contact with Bancour's government or the Ba'Gamnan siblings. 'Lea' was a common name with multiple spellings. There was nothing stand-out about 'Lea'.
Axel was a wanted Ryoka, a fringe member of The Thirteenth Order, an ex-Nobody-with-a-capital-N.
Lea was just nobody.
"You?" He asked, returning the question in kind.
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Date: 2014-02-11 08:15 pm (UTC)"Kadaj," he replied, with a slight smile. He wasn't one of the public members of Khamja, so he didn't have to be concerned about someone recognising him as one unless he decided to step out as a public figure.
Kadaj preferred to maintain his current low profile. His name wasn't public knowledge, and a general description of him might circulate in association with Skite, but that could describe any number of Selkies. When no one knew him, Kadaj found it easy to operate as a hunter, especially one taking on Fiends for a specialty. He liked that, and he wasn't about to ruin it any time soon.
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Date: 2014-02-16 04:33 pm (UTC)Still, this Kadaj seemed all right. He had a high reiatsu, Axel hadn't missed that, but it wasn't at all unusual among people that travelled around in the wilds, especially alone. It usually meant that they were Hunters of some sort, or were at least equipped to deal with the monsters they would undoubtedly encounter if they weren't. Those who tended towards public transport systems and had typical nine-to-five jobs didn't have the same feel to them.
It was a bit of a walk to Winry's shop, but the evening was pleasant and only getting more so as the heat of the daytime sun faded to a more manageable afternoon warmth. He, at least, wasn't lugging a gigantic bike with him.
"It's just around this way," he said, indicating a distant corner.
A lot of people found Rabanastre hard to navigate. This didn't surprise Axel at all. It was sprawling and had been built in the fashion of old cities, those without the luxury of extensive pre-planning. Parts had been added on over the years, probably centuries, and some had been knocked down and rebuilt. It made the streets winding and, to many, especially visitors, confusing.
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Date: 2014-02-17 01:46 am (UTC)He'd probably end up pushing it halfway out of the city again once it was fixed, he realised; Rabanastre's streets weren't designed for motorised traffic, being too narrow, too winding, and too full of pedestrians to be worth it. Probably better to leave at nightfall once the bike was fixed, then, rather than pushing it through the city in the heat of day when he could avoid it.
"I'd have been trying to find this place all night without you," he added. "I owe you."
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Date: 2014-02-25 03:23 pm (UTC)Usually, anyway. Clearly not in this case. There was something about the way that Kadaj thanked him that made him wonder whether he'd been given much help in the past. Help that he didn't have to pay back, anyway.
It didn't escape Axel's notice that they were being watched. Well, not watched so much as observed. It was to be expected, he supposed. Not many people had seen a motorbike. It was bound to attract looks from both the lingerers and those who were heading home after a day's work. Still, the sooner they got to the Rockbell shop the sooner he'd relax. He didn't like the idea of Rabanastre's criminal underbelly deciding they wanted something like that.
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Date: 2014-02-26 12:08 am (UTC)Khamja was different; you never got something off anyone without them expecting a return on their investment, because that's what kindnesses and favours were in Khamja. Kadaj was expected to toe the lines laid down by certain people because he owed them a lot. He frowned, concentrating his gaze on the bike for a moment. He'd thought he'd owed them a lot, anyway, but Kadaj wasn't so content to be used any more, and maybe he hadn't owed some of them all that much in the first place.
"I guess not," he replied, still looking down at the bike, "but it also doesn't cost anything to ignore someone who needs help either." He looked up at Lea again and offered him a slightly awkward and shy smile, "At least let me buy you a drink?"
The amount of blond was increasing in this part of town, Kadaj noticed, as were the number of eyes on them. Of course, Kadaj would prefer that they weren't attracting attention, but it was inevitable when you were wheeling machina through the middle of a city, no matter the cultural makeup of that city. He stood a little straighter as he walked; he was short, but that didn't mean he had to look like an easy target. He kept his reiatsu suppressed the same as he had since walking into the city, though. He might not want to look like an easy target, but that didn't mean he wanted to draw attention to how not-easy a target he was, either.
Although from what he'd picked up of Lea's reiatsu, anyone who fancied their chances against the two of them would have to be really, really sure of themselves.
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Date: 2014-03-04 06:13 pm (UTC)A drink was always welcome in a desert city, there was no doubt about that. Luckily, because it was a desert city, there were also a lot of watering holes. There were a number of them in the same district as the Rockbell shop, as well as inns for travellers. Luckily for Kadaj, that meant that he wouldn't have to walk all the way to the Sandsea for a glass of something cold and then have to try and navigate his way back through the maze of streets and back-allies that made up Rabanastre.
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Date: 2014-03-07 08:50 pm (UTC)The mechanic's shop was visible now, a sign outside that looked like it didn't need to bother to advertise declared it to be the Rockbell's. The name, in this area, was apparently enough advertising all on its own. Kadaj looked, and, hoping that this wouldn't sting him in the wallet too much, pushed the bike on up.