Sacrifices Of The Father

There is a storm roiling in his chest. Dark waves rising up to dash him upon the rocks. Static in his ears as he stares into the cracks of clean hospital linoleum. He feels…far away from his body. When he moves, it is in jumps and starts. He stares somewhere near the feet of the doctor telling him that his wife is dead.

“May we see her?” He asks distantly, his voice like an echo in the room. Soft, but steadier than it has any right to be. It always is.

A few minutes later, he can. Heralded by a doctor gesturing towards the double doors to the emergency surgery room, he peels himself out of his seat like a cliff giving way to the sea. Somewhere beside him, Edmond stands as well. His brother rubs his face, the circles under his red rimmed eyes like chasms.

Each step, he feels, will send him through the floor. He will fall through the world and never come up again. Yet onward he trudges, each impact a death toll in his head.

The surgical room had been cleaned up. Everything stinks of disinfectant and perfume, but not quite enough to hide the scent of blood. Ito lays on the hospital bed as if sleeping. The beeping of medical machines would have been awful, but he is almost sure this is worse.

“God.” Edmond mumbles, sounding so, so lost. He can sympathize. He stumbles into the chair closest to the bed and takes the limp, cooling hand of his wife.

Somewhere else in the NICU of the hospital, little Ruri will be crying as doctors fuss over her. She will be ok, the doctors said, she is not currently in danger. After some time with care and observation, he will be taking her home without her mother.

He is not ready. God help him, he is not ready.

He was not ready when Ito told him that she was pregnant, and that she wanted to keep it despite her often fraught health. He was not ready when they went looking for things to put in the nursery. He was not ready when they had to discuss how they would work around him being so busy. He was not ready every time she fainted simply standing up. He was not ready when Edmond finally moved in and agreed to help (Though he would be forever thankful. Edmond was her brother as much as he was Ricardo’s own.). He was not ready through the checkups, through the planning, through the naming, he was not ready when her labor started early and things went so wrong so quickly.

He had not been ready to be a father. He is not ready to be a father, and he is even less so without Ito at his side. His life, his love, the mother to his child. How does he ever begin to do this alone?

He just lets his head dip, cradling Ito’s hand in his. Neither he nor his brother say a single word for the length of time they are there. When it is time to go, he goes to the bathroom and throws up his guts, then he cleans up and leaves the hospital. In a few weeks, he will take Ruri home. In the meantime, there are preparations to make. He is not sure whether to mourn or celebrate the fact that his daughter will not have to be there for the funeral.

~~~~

It makes sense, Ricardo thinks, that Ruri would be a fussy baby. Ito had always been a woman with a strong personality, and her voice was even stronger. She had been loud, opinionated, and wore her heart like an emblem on her sleeve. Ruri is just a baby but, vaguely, he wonders if she will end up like her mother. She had always said her family had strong genes.

He sighs, headache throbbing in his temples as he bounces Ruri in his arms, who has been crying and refusing to eat for the last hour. He has looked up all the best ways to get a baby to stop crying, and none of them have worked. He should be impressed, he thinks, how much air a baby like her can take in. She wails and wails, fingers balled into angry little fists against her chest, and he thinks not for the first time that Ito may have been better at this. Anyone may have been better at this. Ruri barely weighs anything, but his arms are still tired from an hour of carrying her around the house doing everything he could just to stop her crying.

At this point, he gives up. Laying her in his lap, he leans back in his seat and pushes his glasses up onto his head just to rub at his temples. He waves his brother off the fourth time the man peeks in to ask if he wants a break, though he is growing wildly close to simply accepting the offer. Perhaps Ruri gets this from him, actually, because he is beginning to realize how deep his own stubborn streak can truly go.

Digging fingers into one temple, he leans towards his kitchen table, various prints, papers, and pens scattered across it like shrapnel, and his computer still open to a page of unfinished work that he is now sure will not get done till late, late in the night. Maybe. If he is lucky. If he has a couple miracles on his side. He lets a single stressed groan creak out of his throat at the thought, like a door with rusty hinges.

An alert pings onto his computer, and it is pure habit that has him slapping the keys to answer.

He regrets it immediately.

“Mr. Ginj- Ah.”

Ricardo stiffens, body going board straight as a window for a video call stretches across his computer screen, and the wrinkled face of his boss squints at him through it. His occupied arm tightens around Ruri, and he tries to school his face into something more professional.

“Mr. Girochi. Sir. My apologies, I didn’t expect you to call. Is there an emergency?” He asks smoothly, forced to raise his voice over the sound of his daughter’s squalling. He, at least somewhat, is able to take some ironic satisfaction in the bewildered look that skews across the older man's face for all of three seconds, before he too collects himself.

Clearing his throat, Girochi waves one hand dismissively, his rings glinting in the light. “No, no.” He says, to Ricardo's surprise. “I was calling to see how you were faring, after everything. Your daughter is giving you hell, I take it.” He leans back, hands folding on his table, and Ricardo can't help the helpless laugh that chokes out of him. He bounces Ruri again, to no avail.

“For the last hour and change.” He admits, watching a rare, dry sort of smile cross Girochi's face.

“Segal was the same. Not a day he wasn't crying, for some time. Trial and error is the name of the game, I suppose. A cold pacifier and a mirror helped, for whatever reason.” The man hums lowly, eyes staring somewhere beyond, for a brief moment. It is….a rare moment, this sort of musing.

It is odd sometimes, to remember that Girochi is a father as well. Not a widower, no, simply divorced, but parent to a child who has long since started making his own way. He has never Segal himself, but he seems well off enough from what his TV appearances show of it.

Regardless, Girochi had raised that young man for all his life, and he had ended up just fine. But when he looks at Ruri and tries to imagine what raising her may look like, how she may turn out…..

He finds himself unable to picture it.

He is not sure whether he should apologize more to Ito or his poor daughter.

“I'll make note of that.” Is what Ricardo says, distantly, fingers flexing around the form of his squalling infant. “You would think they would run out of breath, after a while.” He hums. Girochi just smirks, looking surprisingly sympathetic, for a moment.

“They don't.” The older man says, voice thick with bemusement.

Leaning back on his padded, overengineered seat, Girochi folds his hands and tips his head. His long, thinning hair sways with the motion. “I didn't mean to interrupt, Ricardo. I will leave you to it. Some advice first, however.”

Ricardo's eyebrows buck up in interest.

“One day at a time. Try not to think too much about the future, for now, and don't dwell upon the mistakes you make. She's too young to remember them.” Girochi says, tapping his long, painted nails on the back of his hands. “There is no choice now but to move forward. You will learn, I'm sure.”

Ricardo bites the side of his cheek, and inhales deep enough for his chest to ache with it.

“Thank you, Mr. Girochi. I'll remember that.”

Later, to his infinite surprise, a half hour with a refrigerated pacifier and a mirror finally gets Ruri to calm down enough to eat, though it doesn't stop her starting to wail again come early AM.

~~~~

Like a light switch flipped, Ruri's ‘Terrible Twos’ turn her from a loud, fussy menace, into the sweetest thing that side of the earth. And it is lucky, Ricardo thinks sometimes, because he is not sure he would have managed parenting her and everything else.

Planning his detachment from Dark, the founding of his own team, and all the other things that will be years in the making yet, is an already stressful and time consuming task.

It will be worth it, he reminds himself, another night where he has to lock the door so Ruri doesn't wander in and distract him. One day, his efforts will be built enough for the light they shine to drive the dark out, and Ruri will stand next to him as Silver Castle's little princess. She is not old enough to remember this, and soon enough this small, temporary sacrifice will bear fruit that one day will pay back in spades.

Edmond, godsend that he is, covers for him in this. Edmond now is the one most frequently putting Ruri to bed, putting on music for her to sleep, making sure her toys are arranged in the way she seems so particular about. He's taking care of bringing her on outings, getting her socialized, bringing her to daycare when Ricardo himself cannot. All of this after having agreed to coach his future team, as well. For all that Edmond is a Ginjo, quiet in his thoughts and intents, he thinks the man as selfless as anything.

Selfless like he may not be, he thinks at times.

Is it selfish or selfless to be sacrificing his time and love to this…project of his? So much that he has barely any to spare for everyone else in the matter? There are some days he hardly sees Ruri. There are some days he hardly sees Edmond.

But it is worth it. It is worth it. Ruri will not remember the time lost, and Edmond knows how these things go. One day things will be better. And that is the world he wants for the people he loves.

This small sacrifice is worth it. It is only for now.

~~~~

Leaving and building Silver Castle is, to Ricardo at least, a whirlwind success. The compound is commissioned and built, his team is constructed, a factory and maintenance manager is hired (Meckel, a truly strong willed man with a seemingly endless determination for his work), and their work truly begins in earnest. Their first day in the compound, Ruri had been awed at the massive halls and wide rooms, at the tall ceilings all built to be comfortable for the massive leaguers soon to be walking the halls. He had to warn her never to stray in its halls, never to go far from an adult lest she disappear in the maze-like halls. He had to consider getting her a tracking bracelet to wear regardless, because children will frequently do what they want anyway.

The size of the compound is, if he is honest, completely ridiculous for a single soccer team. But in an ideal world, much like Dark, “Silver Castle” will eventually encompass multiple different teams stretched across multiple sports. One day, the massive halls will be full of staff, human and leaguer alike.

There is, at least, no secret basement in this compound. There never will be. There will be no secrets or soldiers made in the shadows underneath their new home, and Ricardo allows himself some small amount of venomous satisfaction in that fact. Their basement is for storage and other such things. Nothing more, nothing less.

Today, for the first time in some time, he is doing his work in the living room of their suite at the top of the compound. He has the ability to now, because watching Ruri and doing his work at the same time is now a possible feat. She plays with her blocks while some kind of animal documentary plays on their tv, and he is…relaxed. Elsewhere, Edmond is running their new team ragged, pushing their limits to see where the limits are, testing and acclimating their still fresh minds and personalities. Socializing them as well as training them. Important first steps. It is a step often glossed over, making leaguers. They are made fully mature, with personalities already copied and pasted into them, but people forget they are still new. People forget they still need to grow to fit their forms.

It is not, of course, anything like raising a child. But they do still require some raising, before they are released to the public.

Ruri will like them, he thinks. She has never met a leaguer up close, but he doubts that will matter. She has never been a fearful child, and she likes new people. He expects she will greet the leaguers- their leaguers- with the same gusto she treats everything with. Though for now, he can only imagine how they will treat her. They were made kind as could be, but they were still developing. Still learning.

They will not meet now. Soon enough, but not now. Just…eventually. Ruri will be a part of this too. She will be raised within the iron league, as much as any leaguer. One day she may even go off and create her own team.

That, more than anything, is an idea that gives him pause. Because that is something he can imagine, all of a sudden, after so long of being unable to imagine her future. Ruri, stubborn and kind as her mother, striking out on her own and making something all herself. Taking with her the sparks her father sets, bringing light further and further into the places he will not be able to reach. Not in his time.

He would like that. He would like that very much, he thinks. And isn't it every parent's wish that their child may surpass them? He certainly hopes Ruri does.

He peers at her over the top of his computer, watching as she giggles and rolls a toy car across a pathway lovingly made of blocks. Quiet, unobtrusive little ‘Brrmmmmm's ripple out of her lips, still so thoughtful for the fact that he is still has his computer out. It took a great many “Shhh, daddy's working” before she learned when she could and could not scream to her little heart's content. But she did learn, and he admires how smart she is.

When she notices him looking, she beams with all the shine of starlight. She shuffles back on her knees, gesturing towards the builds she had constructed, swaths of simple wood blocks scattered across the floor, scarcely painted. She points towards the thing at the center.

“Daddy, look! Us!” She chirps, joyful. And ah, now he can place the shape of it. An attempted mimicry of the compound and its surrounding area. There's even a little half built practice field there. He smiles.

“That's nice, Ruri.” He says simply, adjusting his glasses as his chest warms.

She bounces in place, and he puts his head back down to get back to work. He enjoys this moment, for now. Once things with the team really pick up, he'll be back to long days and late nights. Being an owner is not an easy job. So…he will take these little moments where he can get them. The sound of Ruri playing, the comfort of a calm day, the knowledge that while their steps have been small, they are moving. There is a long road ahead, but he has many hands to help, and many hearts to burn ahead for.

~~~~

“There is someone I want you to meet today. Be sure to welcome her warmly, everyone.” Ricardo says, unable to help it as his mouth tips at the corners into a vague, half smile.

Across from him, all arranged in their usual, neat, pre-practice lines, Silver Castle blink at him with wide, curious eyes. The instant he says it, the team erupts into chatter, bumping into each other and whispering. “Who is it? Did we get a sponsor???” Ronnie calls. “Is she important?” Jim adds. “Is she new staff?” Silky asks, forced to raise his voice over the sudden rumble of question.

It is not unexpected.

Allowing himself a small, private chuckle, Ricardo shakes his head. “No, nothing like that. But she is important. Important to me, at least. And she will be around here at times in the future, now that I’m sure everyone is ready for it.” He says. “Technically, she’s been living with you for a while now.” He tells them calmly, and is fully ready for the second round of shouting and confusion that it brings.

Despite it all, he need only raise a hand to bring the whole group into a anticipating hush. He lets it drop again once it is quiet, hooking his thumbs into the loops of his pants.

“I'm sure you're going to like her. Play nice, don't swear, and you'll all do fine. Are we ready?” He says.

The answer is, universally, yes. Even if he sees Jake muttering a confused ‘Don't swear?’ to himself. He lets an amused huff go through his nose as he nods.

“Then stay there and wait, just for a minute.”

With that, it's back into the structure around their field for him. Inside, Ruri and his brother are exactly where he left them when he went to greet the team. Edmond, scouring over a book of notes on things Silver Castle needs to work on during practice, and Ruri, finishing up a snack of chocolate milk and a sandwich. Edmond closes his notes with a snap, and Ruri perks up when he enters.

“Ready?” Edmond hums, and Ricardo nods.

“Ready. Ruri, come here.”

Eyes going wide, the girl barely puts enough time into screwing the cap back onto her bottle of milk before she throws herself off the chair, crosses the room, and runs into his legs in a move he has gotten well acquainted with in her short four years of life, and has learned by now to keep his body braced when she approached at speed. It is a habit he has no intention of curbing, warm in his chest as he reaches down to ruffle her golden curls and take her hand while she squeals with excitement.

“Time for robots?” She asks, as he leads her off, through the few short halls of the training facility.

“Leaguers. But yes” He corrects, eyes squinting in a smile.

Ruri has known about Silver Castle since they were made, of course. She had wanted, very badly in fact, to meet them. “Can we see them?” Had been a favorite question, as well as “Why not?” And “Please?” In the past. Just like how Silver Castle knows Ricardo has a daughter, though they didn't have quite so many questions as to why she couldn't come around. Their social dynamics were still being established, and they had still been learning boundaries and the limits of their own strength. An oblivious, over-friendly leaguer met with a equally friendly and well intentioned toddler was something that could end in disaster.

Leaguers were very big, and very strong. Children were decidedly less so.

But Silver Castle had grown quickly, and so too had his little girl. The intended surprise hadn't lasted a half hour for her when smart as a whip Ruri Ginjo saw they were going to the training field. And now he can feel the excitement pouring off her in waves, tugging on his hand to make him go faster. He has to pull her away from a couple wrong turns but, well. He doesn’t mind the eagerness.

The mid spring air is comfortably warm today, with few clouds in the sky and a cool wind sweeping across the dirt. It’s the perfect day for leaguers to be playing outside, really. Warm enough to be cozy to work in, cool enough to soothe the heat of worked up plating and actuators after practice. It’s a good day for this. Today, he suspects, they will be getting very little actual practice done. But Silver Castle has worked hard, and they deserve a break. In the future, if they like her enough, perhaps Ruri will even provide an incentive for them to work harder.

It’s all thoughts he shakes off as they step into the bright morning light, and he feels Ruri gasp, pitched high beside him.

It is a sound echoed in stereo by 10 leaguers, all gone instantly doe eyed and frozen, jaws dropping open at once.

“Everyone, this is my daughter, Ruri. Ruri, why don’t you meet everyone?” He smiles.

One sharp little tug, and he obligingly lets go of his daughter’s tiny hand. He does not follow as she, expectedly, goes sprinting up to the legs of the Silver Castle team, though she at least has the sense of mind to not jump on them like she jumps on him. He almost, almost laughs at how quickly the leaguers realize that she doesn’t even reach their knees, and are made to crouch and bully around each other to get a good position to talk to her in, without accidentally kicking her like one of their soccer balls.

The leaguers coo and vibrate with excitement and awe, and there is at least one shout of ‘She’s so cute in person!!!” and an accompanying round of agreements all between the excited introductions to the little girl. He leans back, hooking his hands into his pants once more to simply watch. Edmond bumps his shoulder with a warm smile.

“Not worried they’re going to squish her?” He chuckles.

“Not at all. You trained them well.” Ricardo hums back, just….watching the new bonds come to be. Ruri reaches up to squish the softer mesh of Silky’s face, and he doesn’t think he imagines the wobbling lip as the goalie’s eyes dilate, a mechanical heart melting in real time.

He is correct in thinking they will not get anything done that day.

He sits on the benches at the sidelines, shoulder to shoulder with his brother, watching the leaguers acquaint themself with the girl. They conduct themselves like particularly polite bulls in a china shop; with far too much care without much of any grace. They shuffle around her on their knees or in awkward crab walks for a couple minutes, but it is Jake who eventually takes initiative to fix the issue. Gently grabbing her around the middle, after looking to see that neither Ricardo nor Edmond protested, he plops her firmly upon his shoulder with one hand to keep her steady. Ruri seems overjoyed at her newly gained height, of course. Across the field, they talk about everything and nothing. She tells them about herself. They tell her what little they know about themselves.

It's sweet. And comforting, seeing how quickly they all mesh, as if Ruri was meant to be here the whole time. Neither he nor Edmond interrupt as the sun passes slowly overhead, content to keep away until they are needed. Come lunch, Ruri insists on eating with the leaguers. And after that, insists on trying to kick around the soccer ball that's just about as big as she is. Silver castle joyfully pretends as if she's good at it, making shows of tripping over themselves and crowing defeat as she shoves the ball off towards the goal with her full body. And after that, she insists on riding home with them on the leaguer bus, which Ricardo similarly allows, as long as he is on it as well.

Getting Ruri away from Silver Castle is, at the end of the day, like peeling a particularly stubborn patch of velcro. He takes it with good humor, and deep inside, he knows this is a good sign.

~~~~

Ruri becomes a staple personality in Silver Castle after that fateful introduction. She comes along for practice at every chance, and while she can't stick around to interrupt every day, she is always up in the observation booth. Cheering so hard for the littlest things enough to make the glass vibrate. Keeping her from accidentally pressing buttons on the consoles is an ongoing issue.

He certainly notices how the leaguers seem to train harder when they have her around.

When she turns five, two things happen.

One, he stops feeling the need to supervise when she insists going down to the leaguer quarters to say hi. It's an elevator ride down and a couple halls around, and Ruri can be nothing but safe among the bots that have taken such a liking to her. She gets up in the morning, has breakfast, then runs down to greet Silver Castle before they leave for practice. He no longer fears when he looks around their living space and doesn't find her, nor does he feel the need to run and look for her when she goes missing entirely on the days they don't have practice, though Edmond certainly still does despite the surety of where she is. He does his work, and Ruri is taken care of by Silver Castle. It will never fail to warm him thoroughly, how quickly they have slotted together.

But then there is the second thing. She turns five, and the next week, she starts going to kindergarten. The first day was….a hilarious one, really, as all the leaguers had gathered to wish her luck and fuss before Ricardo bundled her into the car to get her to school. And so too had they been there to greet her when she got back, happy as could be and flouncing in her little pink dress.

That too, becomes habit. Ruri goes to school at the same time the leaguers head off for practice. They hug and say their goodbyes, they leave, they come back and tell each other about their days. Frequently, Ricardo can simply….slip away while everyone does it, trusting Ruri to be back upstairs once she's all done telling the leaguers about her day, and once they're done telling her about theirs. New friends, new things they've learned about, funny stories and other such things that take hours and hours to get through. Ricardo is content to get the short versions once she has exhausted herself after all that.

Ricardo is the engineer here, but he isn't surprised in the least when it's the leaguers who try to help Ruri with her homework. He just laughs and helps correct mistakes when she brings him the papers after yet another hour of fussing from leaguers who are made with Super A.I, yet fumble over kindergarten english and math.

A routine is made, perfected, settled into like well worn boots in record time. Together, the lot of them make such a beautiful picture. He could think of no better team to forge into the future with.

In a few months, Silver Castle will have their debut match. But the tension of that is belied when he sees them all together.

~~~~

“It's going to destroy that girl if anyone gets killed during their matches. You know that, right?” Edmond says one day, a week before their debut.

Ricardo leans back in his seat, pen frozen over paper, as he looks across the table at his brother. The man's face is unusually tight, deep creases making shadows around his mouth.

Ricardo considers that.

The unfortunate fact of the league is that the league is not forgiving. Even the simplest sports can turn into death matches. With rough play as such a pinnacle tactic, there are incidents upon incidents of bots being too broken to come back from. Some are scrapped after the fact. Some simply pop on the field, their oil soaking the ground as the crowds cheer. Again and again, incident after incident. The weak will be consumed. Carelessly. Barbarically.

Silver Castle will not use rough play. It is his point of pride. They alone could stand as a beacon of what could be. Silver Castle could bring the heart back to the league.

They could just as well die trying.

Playing fairly will make them a weak link in the league, he knows. They will be easy targets. They will not fight back. Silver Castle was made kind and compassionate and connected, and it will make them stick out like sore thumbs amongst the oil streaked metal of their fellows. Their determination must carry them through, because god knows their raw strength will not.

And Ruri…..

It will be difficult to explain. There is a reason he does not allow her to watch league matches on TV. If something happens, and something will happen eventually, she will learn the hard way.

“Meckel is good at what he does. I will take care of what he can't. You will pull them from the field before it comes to that, and…..” He twists his pen in his hands. “I will explain it, if we have to.”

So quickly has Silver Castle become a part of Ruri's life. What would be the effect to such a young mind, he wonders, for one of them to be taken away so soon?

“We will have to.” Edmond says shortly. Ricardo only hums distantly.

Neither of them say another word as they get back to work.

~~~~

Their first match is a disaster. He thinks it is a bad sign for the future.

He did not bring Ruri to their debut match despite her tears and confusion, and he can only be thankful for that small mercy as he stands in the leaguer hospital, surrounded by maintenance beds full of dented, scarred, broken leaguers looking more like ugly patchwork dolls than mechanically powerful robots. Half of them are unconscious, and the other half are too shaken to be very conversational. He rubs his face under his glasses.

He hates rooms like this, really, despite his obligation to be in it. He hates the sanitized smell barely covering up the oil, hates the beeping of the machines, hates the beds and bodies upon them. It is, at least, a few steps better than a human hospital, which he has not stepped foot in unless necessary, and has had Edmond take Ruri if it was needed, in most cases.

He tolerates this just barely better. He has to. This is his team's first knock down, and they need the reassurance of their owner's presence.

Outside, Meckel and Edmond talk to the doctors about what there is to do, how long it will be until the leaguers are fixed, etc etc. He knows how long it will be of course, at least an estimation of it, and so does Meckel, but it's standard explanation.

“You'll be fixed and out soon. Don't worry. The first visit to a leaguer hospital is always tense.” He says, belatedly dragging a seat up at the foot of a couple of the beds. Jake, one of the few conscious, shuffles uncomfortably upon where he has been magnetized to the maintenance bed. He is a mess of wires, pads, and welds. One of his hands still isn't working right, thanks to a punctured wrist from sharp cleats.

“Owner. Is it- It's always going to be like this?” He croaks, vocalizer still buzzing static at the edges.

Ricardo closes his eyes. He will not sugar coat this. Not for them. He thinks, briefly, it is unfortunate that leaguers are built to a build contract. Want to or not, they are bound to work for him until their contracts are up. They can't leave, even if they wanted. Though he wouldn't stop them even so.

Regardless, he will not sugar coat this.

“Edmond and I have told you the league would not be gentle with you. You were prepared as well as possible in the time we had. There will be no team that will gentle themselves for you. But you will get better.” He says, hands folding into steeples on his lap. “There will be good and bad days. I trust you to be strong through them all.”

There is a quiet, reluctant rumble among the awake leaguers.

“It's awful.” Silky hisses through his teeth. “That anyone would play a game like that is-!”

Ricardo nods. Approvingly, if nothing else. Silky is at odds with the philosophy other teams take, and he should be. That is exactly what he wants for them. They must know it is wrong, so they can aim for what is right. They must take this fault and deign to be better.

“Owner?” Carl chimes, hesitating in his question. He only continues when Ricardo hums question. “Was…..Ruri watching?”

“No. I knew today would be….difficult. I didn't want to cause her distress.” He says.

Collectively, there is a sigh of relief from those few that are still awake.

At home, Ruri is alone. No doubt still angry at being unable to come see her team's first game. She will be standing on a chair heating up food in the microwave for herself. She will be sleeping without being able to say goodnight to Silver Castle, her father, her uncle. Ricardo and Edmond will not be home until long after she is asleep. Tomorrow she will still be angry, and he will have to explain to her that her team is hurt, and will not be home for a while.

“She shouldn't see us like this.” Silky says firmly, despite a cough from his tanks. His hands ball into fists at his sides.

“I want to see Ruri!” Ronnie complains from his own maintenance bed, genuinely distressed. “She hasn't heard from us at all!”

“We look halfway to the scrap yard! We'll scare her! Do you want to make Ruri cry?” Silky growls back. That, at least, shuts up the protests. Ricardo brings up a hand to bring them all still.

“Tomorrow, when you are all awake, I'll come here and call her so you can all talk. You won't be here for long, there is maintenance we can do at the compound. Just make sure you all rest.” He says, watching a few tired bodies perk up at that.

Tomorrow, he will have to explain things. Once again, he puts his mind to the future….and finds he can only feel dread.

~~~~

Ruri, expectedly, does not take the news well. His attempt to quell her tears fails spectacularly when he tells her that they are in the hospital, and that no she cannot see them yet. He keeps his promise at the very least, and it is Silver Castle in the end who manage to soothe her fears. Ruri's worry bolsters them like a new pillar shoved under a collapsing ceiling, and they end the call with a new determination to get better as soon as possible.

It is a couple day's work, of course. More severe injuries need time to be worked over, then adjusted. But the moment that the work becomes something they can do at home, Silver Castle takes their leave and goes home. Ruri comes back from school to be greeted by a hoard of purple.

She insists on learning how to do touch ups, if not maintenance, after seeing with horror all the fresh grey exposed on their metal bodies. She clung to Meckel's leg and yelled until he conceded. Ricardo had done nothing to help.

He leaves them to it, in the end. Disappears back to his office, because he needs to work on all the things that come about with freshly injured leaguers. The medical bills, the time off, the impact that ripples out because their first day in the stadium had gone awful.

Ruri doesn't come back up that night. Edmond informs him, when he does, that Ruri insisted on sleeping on the couch near the team after everything. Their first real ‘sleepover’, despite the fact they all live in the same building. When he goes to check the next morning, the spaces between her fingers are still marred with purple, pink, white, all the colors of their leaguers.

There will be no stopping her from trying to help now, he knows. Her leaguers have been scorned, and for all there is nothing her tiny hands can do to protect them, she can make sure they are taken care of in the aftermath.

~~~~

Things do not get better. Silver Castle goes to the field and is beaten into it just as quickly. They do their best, they do not fight back, they burn like fireworks. Bright and reaching and gone. Fizzling to nothing as the sky crushes them. They carry the spark of newly made determination, but he can only wonder how long it will keep.

He is not surprised when Ruri finally sneaks a look at the broadcasts of their games. Not surprised by the tears. He places his hand on her head and tells her it is going to be alright, takes her sniffling down to the leaguer quarters so she can bawl and fuss about ‘They're hurting you!!!’ while so many sets of hands go about picking her up and bouncing her on their hips like he had never quite managed to get right, when she was a baby.

They reassure her, grin and pump their fists and tell her a little rough play could never keep them down, because they are strong as anything. They comfort and joke until she is giggling despite her red eyes and puffy face.

They do so, so well with her. And he cannot feel envy, because how could he ever? Not when Ruri is happy, beaming like a second sun. Not when Silver Castle brings her into their fold like another feather to a bird's wing; so natural she blends in perfectly despite it all. He doesn't need to say a word, doesn't need to interrupt. So he doesn't. He watches, and basks in secondhand warmth like it is his own.

Family, he supposes, is something made. It belies his fear of the future.

~~~~

It becomes clear, as one year blends into another, that something is not working. There is something missing. But then, of course there is. There are eleven players to a soccer team, optimally. They only have ten.

They need something special to fill the hole. They need a game changer.

Ricardo gets to work.

~~~~

Ricardo Ginjo begins to think, just a little, somewhere in the back of his head, that he may be the unluckiest man in the world. Because clearly, nothing ever goes as it should be.

“He is….not what we contracted for.” He says eventually.

The worker beside him is profusely apologetic, jetting off streams about how they can take him back, that they will get the work cleared up, how they have no idea how the orders could have been gotten so wrong. It all breezes by his ears, barely heard.

The leaguer they had let out of the transport is still next to it, left to stand and stretch his legs while the worker came up to get the final paperwork signed. Paperwork that had been delayed, now that they all realize there had been a mistake.

Ricardo knows leaguers. Knew what he was the second he stepped out. Perhaps it would be easy to miss for anyone not acquainted with leagues and build frames and whatnot, but it was impossible to miss for anyone who knew their stuff.

Because that. Is a karate leaguer. Not a soccer leaguer.

The hairplates. The armor style. The lithe but strong build. The tall stretches of his boosters. The goddamn headband and belt pieces. Even his feet, split at the toe and completely lacking in anything cleat-like to speak of. It is impossible to hide what he was built for to a trained eye. Of course, leaguers can look like anything they want, if they can afford some kibble and armor changes. Even a change of paint can completely alter the silhouette. But this new leaguer…..

He looks at the paperwork again.

His name is Kiai Ryuuken, right at the top of the page, with his serial number printed neatly below it.

He looks at the leaguer again.

He looks….very small, over there. He shuffles on his heels, hands clasped in front of him and gazing around the compound with wide, warm brown eyes. The cut of his face makes him look young and soft in a way many leaguers do not. He looks disarming, really, as he shuffles side to side more like a nervous intern than someone coded for martial arts getting ready for a fight.

He knows that if he doesn't accept Ryuuken, there are two options. They will reach out for anyone looking to get a leaguer on a discount, or they will cut their losses and scrap him. So it goes. The world is harsher, much harsher, for those built for battle. Boxing, wrestling, martial arts, leagues with weapons like swords, archery, certainly sharpshooting. The violence inherent to these leagues makes the leashes they keep tight enough to choke.

There's a third option there too. In certain hands, Ryuuken could very easily be reprogrammed and sent out as a war machine, having had no life he needed to erase in the first place. More violent leagues were falling out of favor recently, but only because they were more useful as weapons. Ricardo knows this. Has seen this. Has been made to take part in it. He cannot pretend his own hands are clean of oil, not when Frontier and his brothers are out there on some foreign planet, just husks coded to aim and fire.

He will get Frontier back, he reminds himself. One day. If he isn't already dead. Tracking data and long-term plans sit heavy in a little USB hidden in a false bottom of his desk.

One step at a time. This is just one more.

Until then, this means he has been put in a…difficult position. He sucks his cheek between his teeth and lets a long breath go out of his nose.

“We….if….” He starts off false, closes his eyes, rethinks as the worker finally stops apologizing next to him, ceasing the annoying buzz in his ear. He puts his molars together and thinks, because they do not have time….

The decision is made for him.

He watches in something akin to slow motion as the front door to the complex kicks open, and Ruri comes flying out. Her dress spins around her legs, the bow in her hair only barely containing her curls as she dives into the sunlight. She sees Ryuuken, and she makes a sound somewhere between a gasp, a yell, and a squeal. Poor Ryuuken is sent nearly her height off the ground in surprise. He has no time to stop the flow as Ruri promptly jumps the leaguer, one hand on his hand and the other on his leg, far too close to the side of a fresh leaguer who is still learning how to navigate a world much smaller than he.

But Ruri is not swatted away, purposefully or on accident. Ryuuken is frozen with bewilderment, whale eyed at the child clutching onto him. He can hear Ruri from here ‘Are you our new leaguer? You're perfect! What's your name? I'm Ruri!’, but the leaguer's own voice is inaudibly soft from this distance. Gentle despite his surprise. He maneuvers around Ruri with a level of care that speaks to his special build, the code that would let a leaguer like him duck and weave around a flurry of punches and kicks without hardly feeling the breeze of them.

Ruri sees him and peeks. Waves, points to Ryuuken.

“PAPA! CAN I SHOW HIM EVERYWHERE?” She shouts out. Ryuuken blinks at her, then up at him with those soft, soft brown eyes.

He sighs and nods. Ruri cheers, and a tug of her hand has Ryuuken stumbling after her without ever tumbling over and crushing her.

“Sir?” The worker says, hesitating.

“I suppose we'll be taking him regardless. Thank you for bringing him, it will be an honor to have him.” Ricardo says primly, and goes back to signing papers.

Later, when Silky asks with a not outright suspicion and more genuine curiosity “Is he really a soccer leaguer?” Ricardo will simply nod.

“He will be.” Is what he says.

~~~~

Ryuuken turns out to be a fantastic addition to the Silver Castle family. For mood, at least. His gentle touch and kind words do much to soothe the ache from loss after loss. He is good. He clicks with the team almost instantly, and Ruri just as well. He is almost surprised at how well the leaguer takes her on as his own, like he had always been a part of this team.

It's nice.

He knows it cannot keep.

Ryuuken does not change very much in their games, at the end of the day, and he knows he must change gears. Adjust. He does not have the time, space, money he thought he would have.

He has been stupid and optimistic.

He pushes plans forward. Next time Ruri asks about how he runs the team, all of seven years old but smart like he was when he was her age, and as determined as Ito ever was, he starts teaching her.

~~~~

It feels, some days, like he has been transported into the past. Working working working, day and night. Some things he confides with his family about. Most things he does not. After about five “I'm sorry, I can't, can you ask Edmond to help?”s, Ruri stops coming to his office unless it is for their sessions or to bring him food. Guiltily, he feels relief about that. He hardly sees her if he isn't teaching her.

Just like before, it is a necessary sacrifice. And even so, Ruri is learning so, so well. He is proud of how swiftly she moves from subjects. It isn't very long at all before her teachers are suggesting, bewilderment in their voices, that she move up a grade or two. He accepts that proposal, and she is moving schools the next season. Silver Castle has gotten better with helping her homework, and she no longer comes to him with it. Silky or Jake mostly, from what he hears on the few days he goes down to the maintenance bay to check on everything, and sees Ruri talking through problems while she helps Meckel pull dents.

She is going to do well. He knows it with all his heart as he stares at her with her tongue sticking out, arithmetic spread out on the table in front of her. She may fuss and complain at parts, but she does it all the same, barreling through every challenge as it comes no matter how hard it may be.

She was already Silver Castle's princess. One day, she will make a fine queen. She grins as she hands him back test scores of all As, chest puffed out proudly, and he is sure she knows it too.

~~~~

Ricardo lets her go to games at about the same time he starts teaching her about running a team. It goes badly at first, expectedly. She gasps, cries, fusses at every injury. Grips his arm hard enough to bruise at every time one of their leaguers is knocked down and stomped into the dirt. She asks him why he isn't scared. He can't explain it to her beyond “It will be alright. We won't let them die.” which is less of a comfort than he hopes.

She gets used to it eventually. Mostly, anyway.

Or at least he thinks she does, until one particularly awful day she is at the front of the seats watching with him, and she goes ripping out of her chair, hops over the barrier, scrambles down from audience, and sprints across the damn field to plant herself firmly between an already heavily injured Silky and a Dark leaguer whose kick would have shattered his skull open. She spreads her legs apart and crosses her arms, fearless even facing down the mass of aggressive leaguers so much bigger and stronger than herself.

She has lived among them. Of course they don't scare her.

He wants to laugh or scream, the entire game grinding to a halt for a minute until Silky can reach forward, grab Ruri around the middle, and haul her backwards in an awkward tumble down the duster. When he gets to the maintenance bay, he finds he doesn't need to do any scolding at all. Silver Castle has already taken care of it, like they often do. Ricardo only needs to explain the rest of why it is a bad idea.

After that, Ruri is kept firmly in the observation booth for all future games.

~~~~

Ruri breaks her arm running down the compound steps, one late afternoon in winter. He was in his office when it happened, and he only heard of it when his phone kept ringing, answering to the sound of Jim's shaking voice saying “Owner! Ruri fell down the stairs, we think she's really hurt. We already called an ambulance.” and Ruri's sharp, keening wails in the background.

When he gets outside, keeping his stride steady so he doesn't slip on ice like she no doubt did, he can only hear her for the fact that Silver Castle has bundled around her so completely. It is a dark and cold outside, and they form a warm bulwark of bodies around her like penguins huddling in a blizzard. They let him through with ease enough however, finding Silky clutching her against his chest carefully, making sure nothing is touching the arm she is keeping tight to her chest as she muffles sobs and moans of agony into the cables of his throat.

His hands are shaking, and there is something strange glinting behind his wide, terrified eyes.

Edmond comes skidding out front not a minute later, joining him in the effort to comfort Ruri. They all spend the 20 minutes it takes for the ambulance to arrive trying to keep her calm. Ricardo and Edmond's “It's ok, it'll pass” do less to comfort her than the rest of Silver Castle making noise and talking to her to distract her does. Silky presses his lips to her head and coos at her like she's four again, and she giggles despite it all when Jake jokes that it's too bad she's not metal so they can just pop whatever it is back into place, and at least five hands go up to whack him over the helmet.

The ambulance, despite protests, cannot hold one leaguer. Much less eleven of them. Later, the waiting room of the hospital becomes quite a sight as a full team of leaguers waits with baited breath for tests to come back, then for Ruri to come back with an arm in a fresh cast and completely off her head on pain medication. They take her home that same night.

It is back to the same, after that. Silver Castle takes care of Ruri. Ruri doesn't let the broken arm stop her from doing….much of anything, really. Ricardo makes sure she is taking her pain meds when she should, but otherwise, independent as anything, she doesn't need him to help.

Next time Edmond jokes about Ricardo leaving Silver Castle to babysit her, he sounds bitter. Just a little.

Working away at things he can't explain just yet, he knows Edmond will understand eventually.

~~~~

It cannot keep. He was told, once, that he shouldn't worry so much about the future. Now, it is all he worries about as some invisible clock ticks in the back of his head.

Once, he found difficulty seeing ahead. Nowadays it is the present that evades him. Edmond tells him he feels distant recently.

He cannot explain why. His relationships slip through his fingers like sand.

It will be worth it. It is necessary. They will understand. They do understand. They have endured without him, and they will continue to do so long after he is gone.

He is sure of it.

~~~~

One day, when he is getting Ruri dressed to go to a no doubt humiliating interview, he asks her what color dress she wants to wear. She twirls to look at him with a secretive little smile.

“Purple! Didn't you know? It's my favorite color since most of the team is.” She says conspiratorially.

Internally, he jolts. Because no, no he didn't. She wears purple as much as any other color, and she has always done most of her dressing herself, and so much of their talk is around work these days. He has even had her looking at paperwork for him and telling him what she thinks needs doing. They haven't had much talk about personal interests for….how long now? Though it doesn't seem like Ruri minds at all. She smiles as bright as ever just sitting next to him doing her work.

He smiles gently at her instead of saying anything like that.

“I'll have to get you a few more purple outfits to wear, then. We're due for a shopping trip soon anyway.” He says. The look Ruri gives him is surprised and sun bright. She grins like he told her christmas is coming early.

“Really?! You have time?” She gasps. He almost laughs as he reaches down, pushing some hair behind her ears. She leans into that fleeting touch, and her warmth stays even as he pulls away.

“I'll have to make some.” He agrees.

He is busy. It will have to be quick. But just for a day, he can spare a moment with his daughter.

There is a tick tick tick in the back of his head and an itch under his skin. He is sure there have been more eyes on them than usual, lately.

He will have to make what memories he can before he is gone.

~~~~

It cannot keep. It cannot keep. Time ticks onwards, and he prepares his things. He muses that he will be leaving his team and his family in a difficult spot once he is gone, having funneled funds away for his plans and leaving them without the money coming in from his extra projects and extra work at the factories and such that commission him for help.

They will persevere, however. That, he is sure of. After years and years of watching them, he is absolutely sure of it. He leaves them enough to stay on their feet, as long as they are creative. And they are creative. Ruri, young and clever, is the most creative of them all.

He makes sure his will is to his liking, and that all his files are organized neatly.

He makes sure Edmond will be able to pick up guardianship without any legal fuss. In the back of his head, he thinks with bemusement, Silver Castle would fight for it if they had any rights to that sort of thing. He has already caught them in their resident suite multiple times, “kiss the cook” aprons tied awkwardly around their necks and of no use as Ruri tries to teach them to make pancakes.

For the first time in a long time, he thinks about Ito. He wonders how she would treat this. How she would make as a mother. She had wanted Ruri so badly, despite it all. He thinks after that scare, that she would have spent every waking moment with Ruri that she could. He imagines her in the place of Silver Castle, bouncing Ruri on her hip. Riding Ruri on her shoulders. Dancing with Ruri to bad pop, helping her do homework, aiding her on the way to every conceivable milestone of her life. Riding a bike, going to school, going to the fair. He imagines on her the same bright smile that Ruri wears, every day. He wishes his own smiles were quite so sunny.

Ito would have been an amazing mother, he knows.

But Silver Castle takes her crown just as well.

~~~~

It cannot keep.

~~~~

It does not keep.

~~~~

He watches the factory burn with the sort of distant numbness he watched his wife die with. He spares some apology, internally, for the workers that will be out of jobs now.

The black smoke and the power of the flames drives away the dregs of cold that had still been clinging to the early spring, even at the distance he is at. His shirt pulled up over his nose sadly doesn't do much for the smell of it. But the smell is fitting, he thinks, for his former life similarly burning behind him.

He cannot be lingering here for long. He turns his heel away from the wreckage and strides away through the dense wood, leaving the flames behind along with his life. The rescue effort will not find his body. They will assume he was immolated completely in the accident.

‘Accident’.

He will not be there for the reaction of his family, nor his team. He will not be there for when they grieve, or for when they pick up the pieces and move on, because they will move on, he is sure. They have to.

In a few days, Ruri will be the legal owner of Silver Castle.

She will do so, so well. He is sure of that. He prepared her well, and she will be supported at every angle. He is so proud of her. He loves her very, very much. He trusts her, more than anything, no matter the burden he places on her shoulders.

They will all persevere in his absence, even if he will have no true idea of what they're doing for…a long time.

This sacrifice too is necessary. He does it for them, and for everyone. For his family, for the league and his leaguers, for the world at large.

One day he will come back and see everyone again. One day, this will all be worth it, and he will be content to bask in the warmth they shed from the sidelines as he always has.

He will love them from a distance. He always has. From across the world, from space, from a short drive away. He doesn't need to say a thing for them to know it.

He leaves behind no last messages.

He will be back.

~~~~

Open space is very quiet, and very peaceful for the most part. It gives him a long, long time to think. He is not sure if it's a good thing or not.

~~~~

Years pass. He is consumed by the space between stars, chasing the signal ghost of someone he once made.

~~~~

Plucking Silver Frontier from the war isn't half the battle he thought it would be. In fact, the battle had already happened for him. Just one of many bodies in one of many craters, Frontier is barely more than a corpse, still steaming from a recent battle. The air still smells of smoke, ozone, and oil.

He lands the ship close and strides out, dragging the tools he needs to get the former and soon to be again baseball leaguer onto a stretcher. He is surprised when Frontier is actually awake enough to turn his head and look at him when Ricardo comes close. His eyes are streaked with static.

“Who….are you?” He asks brokenly. Ricardo examines him for a moment before he gets to work. There is no time to waste. He needs to get Frontier onto the ship and out of this circle of planets as soon as possible.

“My name is Ricardo Ginjo, and I made you. I'm here to bring you home.” He says.

Dim eyes watch him for a couple seconds, then turn towards the stars.

“Oh…..” Is all Frontier sighs, before going offline completely.

Ricardo gets him on the ship and out of the star system in record time.

~~~~

He shouldn't be surprised when it turns out that, over years and years, Silver Frontier has cracked through some of his own memory erasure. Bits and pieces of his life litter his neural circuits like shrapnel, just shards of a larger picture. Ricardo cannot return all of his memories, but he can clarify what is there. He can tell Frontier what he doesn't know, in the places he does not remember.

The soldier remembers games, throwing balls that lit up the sky. He remembers Gold Arm to an extent, a rival and an apprentice and something so much more important than either, whom he is devastated to learn does not remember him in turn. He remembers his team, the dirt and the rain and the stadium lights. He knows that he had siblings, if not their names or faces, and that they were decommissioned right alongside him. He remembers the shadows under the complex, and the pain of reformatting.

Frontier, despite all this, is understandably reluctant to leave. Though not as reluctant as Ricardo imagined he would be, when he came. But then, he also mostly expected to be dealing with a battle worn husk. This is better.

In the end, he need only tell Frontier that he will not truly be abandoning the battlefield. That what is to come will too be his battle. He tells Frontier his dreams of no more repurposed soldiers, of a league fought with honor, of a future he believes, truly, is bright. He speaks with passion, because he believes it. He believes in that future. And he watches that belief spark too in Frontier.

He sets course back to Earth.

~~~~

Frontier treats the ship not unlike a stray cat treats a new house for a while. Cautious, creeping around, straying close to only the darkest corners. He jumps at flashes of light, stiffens at loud sounds, has nightmares at night. None of this is something Ricardo can fix, not like he can fix his body. But he can distract.

He puts soft blankets closer to the corner seating. He makes sure the light stay dim even when turned on during night cycles so he isn't shocked by light after waking up. He keeps the ship away from any occupied planets and from any hidden battles. He makes sure that lights to not blare, and that the alarms are quiet. And when he begins maintenance to truly fully remove all the sharp edges and heavy armaments that come with a military frame, he talks.

He tells Frontier about happenings on earth. What he had missed since he was gone. News, fresh history, everything he can think of.

And of course he tells him about Silver Castle. He intends for Frontier to join them eventually, after all. He tells him about his family.

Frontier gives his quiet condolences for Ricardo's wife, and he is thankful for the lack of fuss about it. Frontier was much like him and his brother in that. Quiet, calm, thoughtful. He did not fuss. He takes things in stride and he moves forward with every stumble. Frontier is not a thing that can be shaken. And thus he takes the information and instead asks about his daughter.

He is all too happy to tell the leaguer about her.

About her first day of school. About scraped knees. About the time she punched kids at school, and then about the time she jumped on the field to protect her keeper. He tells Frontier about everything and nothing, because what can't be said about Ruri?

“It sounds like you love her very much. I'm sorry you had to leave her. All of them.” Frontier says, after that first time.

The ache is sharp, but only for a moment.

“I'll see her, and everyone else, again. I know she is doing well, somewhere out there. It will all be worth it, to make the world brighter for her.” He says. And Frontier just nods. He understands immediately. Ricardo is firm in his belief, and perhaps it is that fire that keeps Frontier burning forward as well.

~~~~

With changes in plating, changes in body, changes in….everything, they decide Silver Frontier must too change is name.

As a soldier, he was VZ, Frontier confesses.

Ricardo had asked if he wanted to keep that. The “No.” that came after was quick, short, and sharp enough to almost burn, regardless if it had been directed at him or not. But the leaguer doesn't take long to think of something else.

Magnum Ace, he decides. Because, he tells Ricardo with bemusement in his tone, he is an ace shot.

Magnum takes to the name like he was always meant to bear it.

~~~~

Time passes. They make their plans. Ricardo will leave the ship to Magnum, once they reach earth, and he will leave to continue his work secretly. Magnum will join Silver Castle when he feels the time is right, because Magnum has always had a sense for that. If Ricardo needs him, he will send a message.

When it is time, they will see each other again.

Ricardo takes the shoulder canon that Magnum had on him and makes some changes. Makes it something useful for a leaguer instead of a soldier. Magnum will never have to hurt anyone ever again, not if he can help it. He gives the leaguer a new paint job and a fresh polish. He makes sure Magnum has what he needs to survive on his own for a while after they leave each other. Ricardo teaches Magnum about Dark, and especially how to burn out Shock Circuits.

Time passes in a blur in that dark space, flirting just beyond the light of distant stars.

Earth draws close. He will not be going home when he lands, but soon. Soon.

~~~~

They land back on earth shortly after his third anniversary of leaving it. They touch down in the wide field of some distant country with swaying grasses and beautiful flowers, and Ricardo and Magnum both take a breath of air so fresh it nearly hurts. Untainted by dust and smelling of greenery.

The both of them bask in it for…..hours, he thinks. Not saying a single word. There are no words for this.

Eventually, they say their goodbyes. Just like how they started, there is no fuss. Magnum Ace dips his head deeply and thanks Ricardo for everything he has done, and they both wish each other luck.

Ricardo wanders off towards the nearby settlement with all the equipment he needs to restart, and he suspects Magnum takes a few more hours basking in the sun before he leaves.

~~~~

Ricardo gets caught up on what he can the moment he can. He looks up Silver Castle the second he has access to the internet.

Still the worst team on earth.

All still alive, and all still on the same team they started on. In the pictures he sees, they are chipped, dirty, tired looking. But the spark has not left their eyes. Even after this long, they keep playing. They keep burning ahead. They have continued to play fair.

And at their head.

Ruri.

She's gotten taller since he left. She looks healthy. Still looks stubborn as she glares into the camera for the photo of another depressing article. He nearly has a heart attack the first time he sees a picture, because her hair has gotten longer and she has put it up in nearly the exact same style Ito did.

It looks like she has makeup under her eyes, a little bit too caked on.

Beside her, Edmond looks older. A bit more tired. But he has his arm wrapped around her, and his stance is kept as loose as ever. Frowning casually, it is almost as if Ricardo never left, save for the fact he is now keeping the rest of that stupidly pomped hair in a ponytail.

A little research tells him Meckel is still working for them too.

Everyone is still there. Determined despite everything.

He is so, so proud of them all. From across countries and countries, he basks in their warmth once more. He missed them. He will be missing them for just a while more.

~~~~

Time passes. He wanders like a ghost, doing work where he needs to. He is not much on his own, but he still does work. Helping in little ways that help little people. Bedding where he can and gone the next week.

He avoids Dark at all costs, of course. He knows he did not imagine the eyes that settled upon him before he left, or the people that followed him in the shadows. He learned to be sneaky long before he left this planet. He supposes Dark finally started suspecting things of him. Another reason he had to leave.

He keeps moving. On and on. The act of it is cathartic. It keeps him calm. Soothes a scattered mind, keeps him in the present. Once again, he is settled in the here and now. He is not consumed by not yets. He plants his feet to the ground, one after another, and he keeps going forward. He likes travelling, he finds. Quite a lot. A part of his heart he didn't know existed sways with the motion like a cradle. Perhaps he was born a drifter. Perhaps he was always made to wander. The thought of staying pinned down is one that begins to disquiet him.

It doesn't matter, in any case. He keeps his eyes forward and his steps steady.

Far away, his team burns on. And so too does he.

~~~~

Time passes. Years. One day at a time. He keeps up with Silver Castle happenings when he can, though there are never many happenings aside from losing another game.

He buys merchandise from their website, with no small amount of humor. A simple t-shirt and a bunch of hair ties. The t-shirt he does not wear often. The hair ties he always does.

It's something to keep them with him by.

~~~~

He hears it on the news when Magnum Ace finally joins Silver Castle, right alongside Mach Windy. A former Dark player, no less! This join is followed by a whirlwind of wins, and at once he feels his chest bursting. At once, leaguer news is about nothing but Silver Castle and their sudden breakthrough.

He hears people talking about it, watching their games play on the tv in a restaurant. He can't help but laugh at their incredulity.

The victories are sudden, unprecedented, a fire under the feet of the league as Silver Castle claws their way towards the top stained in dirt and their own oil.

It does not escape him, however, that Jake and Jim are missing from the picture. There is no news about them of course, not when they went quietly.

Silver Castle's lifestyle caught casualties, ironically, right before their rise.

He still wishes the two the best, despite his sadness at their loss. He hopes he can learn where they went.

The next time he checks the news, there are more new members. And more. In an instant, Silver Castle is team with fifteen leaguers, six of whom are entirely new and seemingly adopted from the ether. God's sake, they go missing in the arctic for a couple days and apparently picked up a random hockey leaguer right out of the ice, though he has suspicions where that leaguer came from.

He can only laugh.

They didn't need him one bit to be better.

~~~~

Things happen like a dam breaking, after Magnum Ace joins Silver Castle. Like an avalanche, it is one thing after the other.

Dark. The stray leaguers. Segal. The pieces fall into place in a deluge of movement. Silver Castle is having their own adventure across the world. Here, he is having his own.

It figures that Magnum would be the key to everything. The last hammer needed to force something to finally give.

He tries to deal with his own problems by himself, for a while. It would be…inconvenient to thrust this upon anyone there after they had only just truly begun their journey. He doesn't want to interrupt. He also doesn't want to draw closer to Dark than he needs to.

The issue is, unfortunately, forced. And when it is, it is with a sigh that he writes a message for Magnum Ace, and nobody else. He does not want his family involved in this. Not the danger, not the distraction when they are so close to winning. But Magnum is a person he knows can get things done, and he has seen far worse than a few leaguers that have lost their way.

He gives that message to a freshly fixed carrier and tells the scared leaguer to run.

And then he waits.

~~~~

Nothing and everything goes according to plan.

Silver Castle apparently found out about the message, something that does surprise him because Magnum Ace is usually very good with secrets. He finds this out when he sees the news that Silver Castle was playing against Wild Hawk, and had promptly fired the leaguer up enough to crack the rust from his engines.

He has it confirmed when Sisley, captain of the strays he is currently staying with, drags in one Kiwami Juurouta steaming and unconscious from outside. Apparently they nearly ran him right over.

Much to his relief, Juurouta is a quiet leaguer full of his own secrets. Yes, Juurouta is out here looking for him, but he doesn't even need to tell the leaguer the importance of what he is doing for Juurouta to accept his plea for secrecy.

And, he supposes, he should have trusted the rest of Silver Castle more. He watches personally as this new member lights the fire in Sisley that had been missing all this time. Before he leaves, he suggests Sisley and his strays pick up racing, since they're so good at driving already. The sabre leaguer seems to catch on that idea like a burr, even if he doesn't get to see it grow before he is disappearing once more. He hopes it does, truly, because he likes Sisley, more than he thought he would.

The pieces continue to fall one after another after another.

Things catch up to him eventually, of course. Come to a head in something brilliant and violent. Through it all, he finds himself in a space of calm that for once, is not distant. He is perfectly at peace, and perfectly confident. He has seen what this new Silver Castle can do, and he does not doubt them. He is blessed to witness them burn bright for himself.

And of course, for the first time in years, he sees Ruri. Not as close as he would like, certainly not in the situation he wanted them to meet in, but he sees her.

She is neon bright in the sun that hangs tall over the false island. Her attire is…professional, in a way someone much older than her would wear. The jacket seems just a bit too big on her, puffing up her silhouette but not enough to cover how thin she looks under it all. He thinks she may have gotten better with the makeup under her ocean eyes, or otherwise she doesn't need it anymore, because he can't see it from here.

He wishes she would smile, let him bathe in that sun bright spread of teeth for even a moment. But it is understandable why she doesn't.

He allows a small smile once Segal is done posturing. He wishes them luck.

When she calls out for him, he expects her to ask him anything about himself. Where has he been? What is he doing? Why did he leave? For a moment, she looks like she will.

But she doesn't. Because it is clear who rightfully holds her priority here. She knows who she needs to look after, and trusts she will see him again now that he is just a few steps away.

She asks for help with Ryuuken. Overheating.

He knows why, of course, because of course so long ago there were changes he needed to make in order for Ryuuken to fit in among his fellows. There were changes that he needed to make for other reasons too.

He cannot help them with it. Not now. But when he looks up towards Ryuuken, his face as soft and confused as it had been his first day at the compound, he smiles. And Ryuuken smiles back. In an instant, he is sure that Ryuuken will figure it out.

He wishes them well and takes his leave.

Ruri does not chase him.

~~~~

The relief he feels that Ruri does not chase lasts only a scant few hours. Because while she may have had to supervise the start to the game, she becomes significantly more free once it is only Edmond required for supervision.

Deliriously in the back of his mind, he thinks that maybe she never actually grew out of the need to toss herself into an active leaguer field. Because here, there is no observation booth to keep her inside. Nothing that could keep an ox stubborn fifteen year old girl from throwing herself out into the field and directly into danger against all logic.

The next time he sees her, it is with razors flying overhead and leaguers in a full on battle just feet away. His truck was already packed with those who had fallen to Silver Castle, but he had stopped to watch this scuffle for just a minute. Waiting till he needed to pick up Mad Chain as well.

It is, of course, the worst possible time for Ruri to show up. So of course that is exactly when she does.

It is Meckel's voice that alerts him to this, an alarmed and concerned “Owner?” behind him that makes him turn around. And there she is, wide eyed in the darkness, suddenly illuminated from the back by another truck rolling to the entrance. A surprised call of her name bubbles from his lips because why is she there though of course she is, and in nearly the same instant it is Bull Armor that seemingly materializes behind him, calling out in similar confusion but far more stress.

He barely has time to shout a warning as a razor goes flying overhead. He has no time to get her out of the way when it cuts through the rock overhead.

She is frozen as the rubble falls. He is frozen as the rubble falls. Stuck in place with a hand reaching helplessly as she stares upwards unblinkingly towards something that would, without doubt, kill her. He can only shout her name.

“OWNER! LOOK OUT!”

The full force bellow of a leaguer as big as Bull Armor is something that almost sends him stumbling. Bull Armor throwing himself over the barrier of rocks behind him and crossing the floor in a blink is something that sends him stumbling. The football leaguer is over Ruri and under rock before he even gets his next breath in.

When he blinks away the dust, shouting her name, there is nothing but rubble and silence.

And at once, he is back in the hospital. He is back at the graveyard. He does not fill with ice, because he does not fill with anything. He drains like a broken cup, spills over the ground like oil from a leaguer's body. Dimly, he registers the scuffle stopping. The quick metal to rock sounds of multiple frantic leaguers sliding up behind and beside him. His head is full of static. Ryuuken's shaky voice sounds somewhere just behind him, and he can't help but note that he calls her Owner, like all the rest of the team. Not Ruri.

They stand there, seconds in silence that drag by like syrup. The only sound is rubble settling, and stressed systems running at maximum despite there being nothing to do here but stare. Mach Windy rocks like he's going to run forward to start pulling at the wreck. There is something distant in Magnum's eyes that speaks of bodies upon bodies on distant planets. He has no idea how Ryuuken looks. The cave is cold, but the bodies around dump enough heat to make his skin prickle with the threat of sweat. It's so quiet. The air is dead between them.

He doesn't want to have another funeral. Ruri was supposed to be so much more. More than he could ever be.

And then-

Light.

Spilling from the cracks like holy fire, the air burns and bursts, turning rock to dust and ash as Bull Armor stands from the cracked ground outlined in wisping gold and shimmering heat that spills from the gaps in his plating. The same sort of charge that lets leaguers throw magic balls, lets them shatter the limits of their own manufacture, lets them make reality seem to bend at times. Something either quantum or holy or magic that has escaped study and definition for as long as it has existed, though Ricardo himself certainly made a good effort with Ryuuken and Magnum's extra drivers.

Bull Armor's shoulders roll, shaking the dust off as he strides forward. In his arms, an unconscious Ruri is cradled carefully, and she is unconscious because he can see her little cough as her lungs try to free her of the dust. Bull Armor's grip is so light, his fear of crushing her is obvious. His hands twitch like he wants to draw her closer, but he does not. He strides to the group with his eyes forward.

The whole lot of them suck in air like it is a commodity, and the sheer rush of it makes Ricardo dizzy. He does not shake, but the sheer whiplash sends his brain spiralling sideways.

Bull Armor stops before them, and offers her out gently for Ricardo to take. He can do nothing else, rather feeling like he has taken a tumble down the stairs. His voice, always, is steadier than he feels.

The leaguers, just like that, are back to business. Shaken, but determined. Bull Armor's eyes sharpen like blades, because his owner has been hurt, and so has the rest of his team. Ricardo is quick to get out of their way for the resulting showdown.

Kneeling in a corner, he checks Ruri for injuries. There is a spot on her head that no doubt did her in, but it is not bleeding, and he doesn't fear any inside her skull either. Bull armor was quick. She is bruised in a couple places. Scratched. But otherwise ok.

She is warm. Breathing. He has not held her in years and years, and she feels so big against him now. Not just a girl, but a young woman in her own right. Her hair is longer and kept pinned up. She is thin and light and long, she is grown. He never expected her to stay his baby, but it is only occurring to him now that this is a different person entirely than when he left.

The battle going on a short ways away is nothing to him in this moment. He cradles her against himself and, giving in to impulse, swipes a thumb under her eye.

Neatly applied makeup comes off on his skin. A little more reveals the dark bruises of sleepless nights.

There is more than that too, he realizes. A touch of mascara and eyeliner, a bit of blush, something to define her cheeks and make her eyes stand out. Something to hide the soft curves of her face. Something to make her look older. More mature than she is. His heart cracks for her having had to. As the youngest owner currently on record, she has to look mature.

“Oh, Ruri….” He echoes out softly, drowned by the chaos a short ways away. He tucks her head under his chin like he hasn't in…..he can't remember how long. Since she stopped coming to him when she had nightmares, and started going downstairs to Silver Castle instead. He holds her until the battle is done.

When it ends, he assures the last remaining members of Silver Castle still in the game that it can only be a mild concussion. Stops them from fussing because they do not have time to waste. He will take care of his daughter, but they need to go. And despite their concern, Ryuuken most of all, they do.

Ricardo continues to hold her, just for a few minutes, before he bundles her into the truck. He considers leaving Mad Chain there as payment for what they almost did in a vanishingly rare moment of bitterness, but he does not. He gets them onto the truck and gets them all back to the base.

~~~~

The place they are holed up in isn't the most hospitable. But he manages all the same. He gets Ruri onto a soft couch near the maintenance bay, puts some ice on her head, and gets to work fixing up all the teams that need repairing after being thoroughly beaten down by the rookies of Silver Castle. One of which needs to be thawed out before he can even touch their innards.

The working can only calm his heart just barely. He spends hours repairing, repairing, repairing. The basketball leaguers are the worst of it, after falling so far. They are lucky their frames were built to deal with high impact. Still, they will live.

Hours later, he goes to check on Ruri.

He finds her missing, of course. He stays calm for all of ten seconds because Ah. She must have gone downstairs to be with Silver Castle before remembering that no. Silver Castle is not here, and this is not their compound.

He does not run to Segal's war room. He opens the door intending to ask if he has any security footage to track Ruri with, and perhaps a child leash, and of course finds that is exactly where Ruri is. Squared and ready and yelling like she's a half second away from storming up to the redhead and putting a fist firmly in his face. He tries not to think Segal would deserve it. He cannot hide his smile so easily, so he doesn't bother.

“Ruri, don't call people idiots.” Is what he says, hands in his pockets and warmth in his chest as he steps inside. Ruri's eyes sparkle even in the dim light of this room.

Girochi is on call, because of course he is. Older, balder, more wrinkles even than just before he left. He reaches for any kind of remaining bitterness he holds, and finds…nothing.

Time and space have worn any edges he had right off. Now, he smiles and chuckles just at the memory of it all. He plants himself beside, then in front of Ruri as they talk. Before Segal slaps the button to end the call with a fuss, anyway, because evidently he still had some growing up to do.

Not like that is a surprise. Not when he was calling himself the ‘Prince of Darkness’ and pretending a skimpy little mask made for a good disguise. He fusses about as much as Ruri does, maybe more. Which is something for a man stepping into his early thirties.

Still. They get to stay and watch the fireworks.

For a while, there is nothing to watch. Silver Castle gets to the maintenance checkpoint, and there they are taken care of by…not Meckel, but a bundle of kids he somewhat remembers being at some games, later on. The lot of them have become staples in the group, Ruri explains. They cheered for Silver Castle, and had soon been tagging along with them for most adventures at this point. He thinks he likes them already.

Aside from that, there is….a stretch of silence that spreads between them. Ricardo allows Ruri her full minutes of false starts and shuffling, struggle of what to say now that they can say anything.

She presses to his side, and it is the first time in years that he gets to bask in her warmth this close. She is alive. She has forged on. He is so goddamn proud of her. He doesn't need to say anything about it, because he knows she must know this.

There is nobody quite like Ruri Ginjo in the whole world. Nobody who stands as tall despite her small stature. The world could crash down around her- has- and still she stands with her back straight and eyes ahead. She is something that bends, but never breaks.

He thinks this, even as she chews her lip and clasps her hands, shaking, in front of herself.

“Dad?” She asks, soft as anything.

“Yes, Ruri?” He hums gently.

“Why did…..why did you leave? Why did you let us think you were dead?” She asks. Her lip wobbles, and already her eyes brim with tears. He sighs, gaze dragging up towards Segal. This is, really, a conversation they should be having in private. But he has a feeling that Ruri would refuse. Just to make sure she always had an eye on her team. The knights of her Silver Castle.

“I had to. For you, for Silver Castle, for everyone. I will explain soon, Ruri. But not now. There is still work to be done, and none of us can rest until it is.” He soothes.

Ruri is obviously not satisfied with the answer.

But she is used to him being vague. She is used to Edmond being vague. And now, he suspects, she is used to Magnum Ace being vague. And Juurouta for that matter, if he is correct from what little he saw of the kendo leaguer.

She is a Ginjo. She has learned well to read between the lines.

Ruri chews her lip. She obviously wants to speak again, but her voice catches in her throat. Chokes her. In this, he saves her the trouble of finding something to say.

Reaching up, he tucks a piece of stray hair behind her ear.

“Did you take the idea for this hairstyle from your mother? She wore it the same way.” He asks softly, and Ruri startles hard enough for her arms to jerk. She blinks at him.

“Um. I….I did. I was looking at photos of her a long time ago and…..it looked good. So…” She shrugs her shoulders, taken aback by the sudden change of topic. He smiles. Really, her hair is a mess now. She hasn't redone it since he got here, he knows. It's wanting for a good shower, really, but she isn't going to get that here.

“I used to do it for her all the time. May I?” He asks, gesturing slightly.

Ruri gapes at him, but nods all the same.

Smiling, just a bit, he goes about tugging her hair loose. It is kept in place by little pins and clips that disappear in the golden locks when done right, and sprayed into place after that. He puts the hairpieces in his pockets when he pulls them out, and allows Ruri's hair to unfurl down her back, just below her shoulderblades. He is thankful for washing his hands as he goes about carefully teasing out knots and brushing down the pieces that stick up. Releasing some of the hairs that spray still makes stiff. He is rusty at this, but the motions of it are memorized. Once that is all in some semblance of order, he goes about carefully putting it all back again, if a bit tighter to make sure it stays together without the spray. She leans into his touch as he goes.

Once it is done, he releases her and nods. Ruri just turns and….blinks at him.

“You did this all the time for mom?” She asks. Ricardo nods.

“Especially when she was pregnant. She was too tired to do it herself some days, so I would do it for her.” He affirms.

Like the motion has been given new meaning, she hovers her hand over her own hair. Not touching, lest she mess up all his hard work. She puts her hands down eventually, and looks away.

“Do you wish she were here now?” She asks.

There is something she is not saying. There are many things she is not saying. Because how could she? How could she address the years? She couldn't, not in the time they have.

But they will have time. Soon. Just not today.

“Of course I do. Every day.” He agrees. “But I am happier for the fact that you are here. I think your mother would agree. She would be amazed to see what you have done.”

And for the first time since he has seen her in person, there is that sun bright smile. For a fraction of an instant, she is four years old and he never left at all. There is no words for the feeling, so he does not bother putting sound to them. Even so, Ruri pushes her face into a pout soon after.

“It was really difficult taking care of things without you, you know.” She puffs, crossing her arms.

“You were the only one who could.” He answers with a smile. And again, she is taken off guard, her face going flushed and shy. He has no idea why, because of course she was. He would not leave Silver Castle to anyone else. Not even Edmond.

She opens her mouth again, and he puts his hand on her shoulder for a moment as his smile goes sideways.

“Remember we are not the only ones in this room, whatever you say.” He reminds her.

He almost regrets saying it, as her face drops, and she looks over at Segal with eyes like she is fully considering going over and kicking him out of his chair. Ricardo cannot agree on principle. Personally, however.

Again she bites her lip, and looks towards her feet. A thousand words go unsaid against her teeth. Flying, falling, crashing in her throat. Her hands flex.

They come up. And she throws herself onto his chest, arms wrapping around his middle.

“I missed you. Every day.” She says in a whisper, a heel turn from their former conversation and the only words that could contain everything and nothing like this. He plants his hand on one of her shoulderblades.

“I missed you too. I knew they would survive with you.” He says, closing his eyes. He wishes they were anywhere else for this, but…this is what they have. For now.

In lieu of a thousand choking words, Ruri just holds him until he has to alert her that Silver Castle is out of the maintenance checkpoint. After that, they go back to watching the screens with baited breath.

There are still things Ruri obviously wants to say. But he is proud of the fact that, despite it, her team comes first. She watches them without a word to what hangs between them.

~~~~

The final showdown is, as many Silver Castle things are these days, something historical. He knew in his heart they would pull through, but it is something else to watch it happen.

They all watch in awe as former foes gather atop the rock, backlit in power and lightning. They rally behind the singular standing Magnum Ace, hearts beating as one as they each become a pillar to hold him by. The leaguers who were fighting them just hours before, who Ricardo had only just barely fixed, gather at the rails of the ship that Sisley had flown through the canyon to come to their aid. Even they are here, spirits lit bright enough to burn.

Together, as one, there is no storm that could hope to touch them. The light of them carves the clouds apart. Magnum Ace, standing shoulder to shoulder with Gold Arm with Arm's hand on his back keeping him steady, splits the storm in half.

He is kept standing by the same claws that once would have torn through him, and then by many more.

They cannot linger in their awe for long. Soon, Ricardo is dragging them quickly out of the building and through the island with a smile that refuses to be tamped down. He lets it spread until they reach the canyon where many, many leaguers gather in celebration.

Nobody follows them in there, at least. Because it is, in fact, common sense to not start a fight with this many already charged up leaguers.

~~~~

Actually getting off the island is…..an ordeal. Several ordeals, really. They have to get to Sisley's ship first, which involves navigating a whole lot of leaguers crashing into each other and shouting victories into the ether. After they get to the side of the ship, they end up having to wave down Deus to carry them onto it. Deus, thank god, is polite enough to carry them over the crowd on the ship and right to the side of Magnum Ace and all the rest of Silver Castle. Though he does have to stop Ruri from wiggling free and just jumping onto Magnum, which he finds out later is another habit she's gotten into recently.

He isn't surprised with how quickly Ruri detaches from his side to go fuss over her team, nor how quickly Sisley offers up his maintenance bay for Ricardo to work on the currently injured members of Silver Castle. Gold Foot and an old boxer by the name of Dyke Dyson seem more than eager to help him get Mach Windy and Ryuuken down there.

He leaves to the sight of many friendships just barely set in motion. Bull Armor plants Ruri firmly on his shoulder to keep her from getting crushed in the crowd while he chatters with another football leaguer with paint matching his own, right along with the members of Mad Chain who are getting some well deserved reaming out from the teen they nearly killed. Topjoy has his arms tossed amicably around the shoulders of a brightly colored basketball leaguer with fangs in his smile and a suitably flustered Grey Link. GZ seems to be having some impassioned words with a strange red leaguer, and of course Sisley has Juurouta at his side at the top of the ship.

At the bow, Magnum Ace and Gold Arm still stand hip to hip, elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder, the world moving around them. Magnum refused maintenance until later, and watching Magnum let steam out of his vents while slumping until their finials and audial fins touch, he thinks he understands why.

He fixes Ryuuken and Windy on his own, till some minutes later when the hat ship finally arrives (nearly knocking into the canyon walls, by some reports), and Meckel is there to help.

Well. Meckel is not there to help, because he was injured in the same incident as Ruri. Silver Castle's little tag alongs are there to help while Meckel watches and complains. Ricardo was right there, too. He does like these kids. In no time at all, Windy and Ryuuken are being released into the gathered gaggle of leaguers, and Gold Arm is dragging Magnum by the scruff into the maintenance bay for a thankfully shorter repair.

With the hat ship having arrived, some of the party migrates there, too. Oil is shared, new friends are made, there is laughter and chatter and freedom and light. Once maintenance is done, Ricardo gets himself onto the railing and out of the way to watch as everyone sways together. Ruri only passes by him briefly to share a soda and some smiles with him before she is away again, perched on the shoulders and backs of a new leaguer every time he sees her. Some of them not even her own.

He is sipping on his coke and watching the tag along children accost a bewildered golf leaguer when Edmond hops up beside him, leaning elbows onto his knees.

“So. Will you be leaving when we get to the mainland?” He asks. Right to the point, not bothering to beat around the bush. Ricardo appreciates it. He hums, takes another sip.

“I will. My work isn't done, and Dark still will not rest until I'm back or it is. It's safer for everyone.” He says.

Edmond frowns, huffs through his nose, but makes a noise of affirmation.

“Have you told Ruri?” He asks, low and stiff.

“No. I'm waiting until we get back to land, for that.” Ricardo shakes his head, brushing some condensation away from his drink. “It will be better for all of us, I think.”

His brother only makes a noise back, low in his throat, and does not press the issue. He is thankful for that, the both of them sitting in silence as they watch the celebration.

This, of course, is what he had always wanted. Once foes turned friends at the end of the day. Joining hands once the battle is done, smiling with no more game to win. Sportsmanship. Magnum Ace and the rookie Silver Castle have done in short time what he could not have done in…..years of work. A lifetime of it.

It is unfortunate that his own originals are not here to see it too. Besides Ryuuken, of course.

But he is thankful for it too. He isn't sure he could handle their questions alongside Ruri's. In his chest, he remembers that strange look behind Silky's eyes as he clutched a broken armed Ruri to his chest. He expects there would be much for him to answer for.

He will answer for things, eventually. Just not now. When it is done.

The celebration comes to an end…eventually. Leaguers split in every direction. Some ride with Sisley and his crew, some go off to find their own transportation they had taken to the island, and some of them end up hitching a ride on the hat ship with them. The Gold Brothers seem eager to be one of them, taking the extra time to chat and laugh and fuss alongside everyone else. Ruri passes out nearly the instant she sits down in the ship, getting bundled off to bed by a quietly laughing Ryuuken. She's awake though, by the time they reach the mainland.

Under a still dim sun, everyone scatters. Split in different directions, off to who knows where, all on their own little adventures that had formerly ground to a halt when they felt the call to come to Silver Castle's aid.

In the end, it is only him and then.

He says his goodbyes. There is very little fuss.

When Ruri stands before him, it is with a thousand words she cannot say. A thousand thoughts that could never be pronounced in a day, an hour, a minute. He places his hand on her shoulder and smiles, tells her that it will be alright even if he isn't here. And for a moment, just a short one, she smiles back.

He wishes them luck.

And like that, they are back on the ship, waving goodbye, and gone.

He takes a deep breath of sea air and relaxes. Yes, he thinks. Yes. They're all going to do just fine out there.

He turns and walks.

~~~~

Despite his work, and his ongoing duck and weave away from Dark, he manages to arrive to watch the world cup. And of course he would. Here, he watches them once more ignite spirits with their work. Hundreds and thousands of them as the crowds bear witness to their strength.

He is surprised in no small way at the two leaguers that show up for the World Cup. And regardless of their changed names and changed frames, he knows their faces. The curve of their jaws and the shape of their noses. It is only fitting, he supposes, that Silver Gallant and Silver Justice come face to face with their missing brother, in the end. He wonders, briefly, how retrieving them went. They seem perfectly fine working for Dark, at least.

The world cup is, expectedly, a whirlwind event. Even for that which he is not involved in, though he does have to get involved eventually. Has to reveal the part he played in Dark, the drivers, the Silver Brothers. There is, ironically and perhaps thankfully, very little time to talk about their own personal matters while Magnum and his brothers are struggling with their own. He doesn't want to talk about personal matters while they don't have time for it.

One thing after another, he does what he needs to. He finally reveals the facts about his involvement in Dark, the Heart Kits, the Silver Brothers, everything. One piece at a time. He encourages, he oversees, he works. He does exactly what he needs to when he needs to, and watches the sparks he sets off turn into something brilliant. But no, it isn't thanks to him. It is this new Silver Castle that keeps Magnum Ace, and everyone else in turn, bright. All he needs to do is turn and point them in a direction.

He could never be prouder of how far they have come.

With everything at an all time high, with all the work he has done reaching a tipping point after all these years, he joins up with Dark again, simply to get a good view of the fireworks. And oh, are there fireworks.

Everything finally, finally pays off. And all of his work, all of his sacrifice, bears the sweetest fruit.

Silver Castle does what he couldn't do in a lifetime, in a single season.

It was all worth it.

And this, he knows, will keep.

He sits with his family on the parade back, enemies turned friends guarding each other's backs as they make their way towards their goal. There are no words shared, not with the sword of Dark and compulsory retirement swinging over their heads, but there doesn't need to be. This? This is fine enough. They have won.

There is a tight moment when the soldiers arrive, of course. When Girochi arrives. Only for the man to tell them that their victory has changed him, too. He keeps his smile polite instead of wide like it wants to be when Girochi hands him the task of taking the Shock Circuits out of everyone in Dark, which will be….a task, for certain. But a satisfying one.

The celebrations, once more, hit a fever pitch. There is a party to be had when they get to the hotel.

~~~~

It is later, so much later, that there is finally a chance to talk and rest. It is Ruri, of course, that finds him on his way to his hotel room.

“Dad!”

He turns, blinking in the overhead lights as he looks behind him. And there in the hall is Ruri, shoes slapping the ground as she approaches. Her hair is undone, allowing her curls to bounce around her shoulders as she moves. Everything else seems to be gone too. Her working clothes are gone, replaced with a simple graphic T shirt and shorts. Her makeup has been wiped off, fully revealing the roundness of her cheeks and the deep smudges under her eyes. He is stunned, for all of a second, because at once she looks so much younger.

She was always young. But the girl in front of him is, suddenly, viscerally, just….Ruri. Not Silver Castle's owner, not the head of a company. Just……

Just Ruri. His Ruri.

His little girl.

She has grown up now, sixteen in a few short months. But suddenly she has never looked younger, and he has never felt older.

He rocks on his heels, thumbs caught in his pockets as he smiles at her.

“Ruri. Already done with the festivities?” He chuckles, and her lips buzz when she huffs, but makes a noise to affirm it.

“It's been a long day. Everyone is tired about now. Ryuuken had to carry Topjoy to their quarters because he nearly passed out when he was sitting down!” She explains, and frowns a bit harder. “I would have stayed longer, but Silky told me I should get to bed.”

He almost laughs. Almost. Good, reliable Silky, always looking after Ruri. Still enforcing bedtime after all these years and an ownership change. Despite the fact she is a teenager now, and despite the fact she is the owner of Silver Castle, she doesn't seem particularly put out by it. Because she is tired, and because she is used to it. Silky and Ryuuken had always been the ones to get her to bed when he couldn't, after all.

“You should. I can imagine you're exhausted.” He says, and Ruri nods.

“I am but…I….” She trails off, looking suddenly shy. Looking suddenly small, breaking eye contact to stare at her feet. She stays quiet for a long moment.

The next time she looks at him, her eyes are wide and pleading.

“Dad, now that everything's done, now that you're back, are-? Are you going to be….leaving again?” She asks, her voice tiny in her throat. “Or…or can you come home? Can you come back with us this time?” She stutters, reaches down to take the hem of her shirt in a death grip. “I-! I know you're going to have a lot of work to do with Dark but! But Dark isn't that far from Silver Castle and you could always come back after you're done and-!”

“Ruri.” He says gently, cutting her ramble off at the roots. Choking her with the shock of it. He smiles.

“Do you still have a spare room in the suite?” He asks, tilting his head and waiting till Ruri silently nods. “Then yes. I can come home. I admit I don't have much to my name, so you don't have to worry about moving me in.”

Ruri's jaw drops. And for a moment, he thinks this revelation is more shocking to her than it should be. Because of course. Of course he is coming home.

He has loved wandering. But he does not need to hide any longer. The door to Silver Castle is open, and with his work done, his personal work anyway, he is glad to finally walk back inside. It will be interesting to see what has changed. In his mind, he can't imagine very much has.

Ruri vibrates in place, and that is all the warning he gets before he has a heavy armful of overjoyed teen smushed to his chest and squealing like a broken vocalizer.

“YES!!!! Yes yes yes yes! We- You- We never put anything else in your room, and all your stuff is still in boxes! You can have it back! And- Oh we've fixed so many things since we started winning games and-! I'll have to show you!” She says, bouncing up and down against him, before looking up at his face with a bristly glare that is completely at odds with what she was saying. “You don't get to leave without saying anything ever again! You hear me?! Never never NEVER! Never again!!!” Her grip tightens, threatening, around him. She is surprisingly strong, he finds, for such a frail looking teenage girl. Because she has been helping carry things and do maintenance, he realizes. Like any good owner, she gets her hands dirty in the places that mean something.

This time, he does laugh.

“No promises. But I will try.” He says simply, reaching up to place a hand on her head.

And instantly, he thinks he has said something wrong. Because Ruri's face goes through about three expressions of pain before she looks away, and suddenly releases him. Suddenly pulls away.

“Yeah-! Well! You better! If you leave again, I'll never forgive you.” She says, the light of her dimming and shutting away in an instant. He takes his hand off her head, and he feels….

Cold.

There is something wrong here.

All the same, he bolsters. Because they have time now. He will soothe any lingering aches of his absence to the best of his ability. Now that he is here, it is time he finally allowed them to understand. They will understand. They will understand he loves them, no matter the time, no matter the distance, no matter the quiet.

He smiles.

“I look forward to coming home with you, Ruri. You should get some rest. And tomorrow morning, we'll go home together. After everyone is done saying goodbye.” He says gently.

Ruri looks at him. Smiles a little. Then somewhere near her feet.

“Yeah. Goodnight, dad.” She says quietly.

There is still a slump in her shoulders despite her smile. Something distant in her voice. He reaches out and pats her head.

“Goodnight, Ruri.” He says.

Ruri shuffles her feet, chokes on nothing, and takes a deep breath.

“I love you.” She says meekly, making his chest feel full and warm as she always does. His brave, strong, stubborn little Ruri. All grown up and making something of herself. He is so, so proud of her, more than he could ever say. And so too does he love her, more than words could ever express.

And so he doesn't need to say a thing. He ruffles her hair affectionately one last time. Turns. And makes for his hotel room. Soon, he will be home. And everything is finally, finally right.

The sacrifices were worth it.

Notes:

Ricardo hug your daughter and tell her you love her challenge IMPOSSIBLE. Also is anybody gonna talk about how during the OVA Edmond, Ruri's supposed guardian, lets Ruri go into hiding completely on her own without making any effort to keep track of her or take care of her aside from making sure she's fed and has somewhere to come back to? And then LYING to the ONLY PERSON who is actually bothering to worry and look for her about where she is and how she's doing? And the fact that Ricardo doesn't do any showing up for her at ALL till the end? We're not addressing that? No? Just me? Ok cool cool cool cool cool cool-

Series this work belongs to:

Part 1 of Family Matters Next Work →

Actions

Kudos

Crazycatlady88, REYDELCASTILL0, Derpy_Cat, MessengerofMechs, MercySewerPyro, monstrousengine, GatoRasmus, and extension_cord as well as 6 guests left kudos on this work!

Comments

Sorry, this work doesn't allow non-Archive users to comment. You can however still leave Kudos!

Archive of Our Own^beta

Actions

Work Header