I decided Naitoryuu would be Sai. I find it funny. I also like going into detail about Naitoryuu’s people’s history. I think it’s cool.

I’m sorry for the lateness. I was busy.

54: This is Halloween

Naitoryuu groaned inwardly. It wasn’t that he hated this; it was mostly that he just didn’t want to go way out of his way to hide himself. Now Hikaru was forcing him to! He couldn’t bring himself to be mad at her about it, however. He’d already signed the paper saying he’d come.

Why a dance, of all things?!! Naitoryuu wailed in his mind. He was actually frightened of dancing. In his home, dancing was an ambiguous thing. Of course, his older sister had taught him how to dance when he was young, but that was in his dragon form! In his human form, he was just as lopsided as if someone had cut off a leg!

He wished there was a way to hide his pale features and red eyes, but then he realized that others must think this part of his costume. Colored contacts and pale white makeup. Except his looked eerily real.

Naitoryuu slipped on the headband that Naota had lent him. He also remembered the rather colorful string of comments that he gave him while helping him with this strangely elaborate costume that suited his short black hair.

Altogether, Naitoryuu’s costume was Sai from Naruto. Minus the weapons, of course. This was a school function, after all. He had no idea what Hikaru would go as, and he only hoped it be something he’d be able to recognize her in.

He pulled his gloves on, almost burning them in frustration at the strange design. He snorted smoke. Naitoryuu sighed, realizing that he shouldn’t do that, either. A human snorting smoke out his nostrils would bring too much attention to him.

He ran into Cody as he walked out of his temporary room. Cody wasn’t really dressed as anything but herself, mostly because she wanted to scare the kids that thought they were sparkly vampires. He wished her luck.

“Relax,” Cody said, flashing her teeth, “it’ll be fine. Dancing’s no problem.”

“Have you ever danced with Loki?” Naitoryuu wondered.

“Once,” Cody mused. “He’s as awkward as a camel about it. He’s sad that he can’t move as smoothly as I can. I told him that was alright.”

Naitoryuu wasn't very consoled right now and groaned again. Cody rolled her blind eyes and said, "Calm down - it's not as bad as it seems."

“It usually is as bad as it seems; and that is my misfortune.” Naitoryuu moaned.

Hikaru was waiting for him outside the school. Naitoryuu felt walking inappropriate and figured that the faster the got there, the faster this would be over with. So, he flew. It took about ten minutes for him to get his costume back on, so it was basically like he walked anyway.

He wasn’t sure exactly what or whom she was supposed to be, but he had to admit, she looked pretty. She wore a pale blue dress with very small wings on the back, and a small painted tattoo on her forehead.

Naitoryuu wandered over and greeted her with a small bow of his head.

“Hey!” She said happily. “You’re all cleared to go in with me. Nice costume!”

“I borrowed it from Naota.” Naitoryuu admitted. “Who is this, anyway?”

“That’s Sai.” Hikaru told him. “I’m Subaru from .hack//Sign. I… I’m not expecting you to understand who that is, either.”

Naitoryuu sighed with relief. Hikaru laughed a little. “I’m glad Kidd gives us Halloween off… I’m just surprised he doesn’t give us any other holiday off.”

Naitoryuu didn’t know the answer to that, so he merely shrugged. “How do you Humans dance?” he asked tentatively.

“Really any sort of way. I’m not too crazy about dancing, if you don’t want to do that. We can just grab some food and do something else.” Hikaru suggested. “That is, if you want to…”

“Ah… I would actually be very comfortable doing that.” Naitoryuu replied, his stomach annunciating his agreement.

“Eating and then goofing off it is!” Hikaru cheered.

After eating, Hikaru and Naitoryuu wandered around until they found a small plowed cornfield. In areas, it was slightly muddied, so they avoided that, and they wandered throughout the small field. A few corn husks were still on the ground from the harvest, and Naitoryuu picked one up in curiosity.

“This reminds me of home…” He mused.

“You never did tell any of us about your home, Ryuu-kun.” Hikaru mentioned. “What’s it like?”

Naitoryuu mulled it over and then replied. “We are surrounded by mountains, very secluded, but we are near to the Elves. Our highest mountain has a legend. It is a little long, but…”

“We have all night.” Hikaru said, gesturing to the sky.

Nodding, Naitoryuu stuffed his hands in his pockets, wishing for the open sky. He stopped walking and then asked, “Do you mind if I… change?”

“What- Oh.” Hikaru wondered before realizing, and then she said, “Alright, you can.”

Naitoryuu’s black scales nearly camouflaged him into the night, the disappearance of the stars being the only way for Hikaru to tell when the sky ended and the massive dragon began. He crouched, allowing her to clamber onto his back, and then took off, his powerful back claws leaving large gouges in the earth.

With a few strong flaps, he rose into the sky above the clouds, where they could see the largest of Tokyo’s skyscrapers.

He cleared his throat, smoke coming from his nostrils, and it sounded more like he was choking than anything else.

“My people, as I said before, live inside of a large chain of mountains.” Naitoryuu began. The constant and rhythmic thump of his wings and his deep voice made it seem like a bedtime story to Hikaru. She fought not to fall asleep.

“The mountains, we say, are made from great Draygoons. There is more truth to this legend than it may seem – our first king is sleeping within the tallest of our mountains. After his death, his mate decreed that if every king of our people were to end up living inside of a mountain, away from those he loved, than a queen would instead rule.

“Our people treasured that mountain until the Elves decided that they wanted to war with us, for we were more dangerous than the Zver to the west. They trekked to the north, and drove their way through our mountains, taking the scales of our first king and many after him. They used these scales to build their Shiningu Tokai.

“Finally, a queen of our people brought the warring to rest. The Elves kept the Shiningu Tokai and allowed our people to remain in our valley in return. To this day, I cannot look to the skies of that city without feeling the residual pain in my heart.” Naitoryuu finished, stilling his wings to glide.

“So… that’s another reason why you left…” Hikaru murmured.

“Yes, it is.” Naitoryuu replied with a growl.

They were quiet for a while before Hikaru wondered, “Do you have any family?”

“I do. My sister.” Naitoryuu replied. “She is older than I, and I respect her deeply. But, when I was torn in two, I went home to desperately seek her help. She could not aid me, mostly because I could not reach her. Being torn was like tying a cord around our chests and giving it only a certain amount of length. When I tried to find her, the cord was pulled so tightly and I could not reach her for fear of the pain it caused me.”

Hikaru mulled it over. The wind whistled in her ears for a moment before saying, “I’d say I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’d like that much.”

“It would not help.”

“Lo forgave you, didn’t she?”

“Very flippantly.”

“But that’s just her way!”

“Her ‘way’ did not make my deed seem forgiven.”

Naitoryuu flapped his wings greatly and propelled himself further into the sky. Clouds passed them by, catching on his great wings and leaving droplets of moisture here and there. Hikaru gasped underneath the pressure until Naitoryuu suddenly swung his body in a great loop, causing her to grasp for his neck. She grabbed just in time as he leveled out.

“We should not be out here much longer.” Naitoryuu said solemnly. “Kidd shall worry.”

Hikaru rubbed his rough scales, wondering if he could feel it. She hesitantly bent down and apologetically pecked a kiss at his neck, wishing she hadn’t brought that up at all. Naitoryuu only hummed and flapped towards the outskirts of the town.

Sorry for the shortness, I just wanted to get this out soon because I couldn't on Halloween.