#hoaquin

part 2

S3Bam: He said he was cold

Khun:

Yandere

Part 3

Walking through the halls, the other Hoaqin stays at your side. It seemed he had also gotten attached. “Y/N. I’m hungry.”

“You’re very similar to the other you. As for food, I’d ask the two behind us.”

He nods, looking over his shoulder. “Hey… I’m a bit hungry. Do either of you have something to eat?”

They freeze. “Wh-what do you mean by that...?”

“Like snacks.”

Yihwa pauses to look through her bag as Wangnan breathes a sigh of relief. “We have some snacks here.” 

She hands him banana chips, you raising an eyebrow. 

“Banana-shaped chips? Aren’t those for children?”

“Try them.” She urges, him shrugging and doing so.

“Oh, not bad. Thank you.” Holding the bag, he continues on down the hall, looking back at you in order to spur you into movement once more.

Loud rumbling fills the hall as you walk along, the Hoaqin at your side looking in the direction of its origin. “It’s not another me. Let’s go check it out.”

You crack your neck, looking in the same direction as him. “Sure.”

Wangnan and Yihwa look at each other, worried, soon running to catch up to you and Hoaqin.

-

“It isn’t the smartest decision to have such a loud fight on this dangerous train, is it?”

You look around at the group, seeing the angel lady and dog guy near two women and a small crocodilian. 

“Mr. Crocodile!” Yihwa shouts. “Where’s Bam?!”

Hoaqin turns. “You’re their acquaintances?”

The dog guy turns to face your new group and Wangnan stutters out an answer. 

“Is it possible that you’re another Hoaqin, sir?” He asks, the boy at your side confirming it. 

“If you both know who I am, you must know the other me. Why are you fighting?”

Your eyes met with the crocodilian, him tilting his head at you. You both look away at the same time, seeing as a gargantuan sword made of white energy floated above Hoaqin. Your eyebrows raise, impressed. “Woah.”

“The ones who fed me are who I will side with. This situation may be unknown to me, but if you’re an enemy of theirs, I will not hesitate to slice you with this.” He threatens, the angel lady stammering as the blade gets pointed her way. “So, tell me. Are you an enemy? Or an ally?”

Before she can answer, the familiar voice of Hoaqin breaks the tense silence. 

“Vicente!” He shouts, eyes widening before shifting into a glare at the sight of you next to him. “So, you’re the second one. It’s been a while! The first time seeing each other since we were one.” His grin was unnerving, not matching the anger that filled his eyes. “We need to become one.”

Vicente hums. “Right now?”

“Yes, a new Slayer Nominee has appeared, and everything has fallen apart. His name is Jue Viole Grace. We have to compete for the title of Slayer Nominee! Now, let’s become one, so we can defeat that bastard!” 

Looking at the ground, Vicente stays quiet for a moment. “Okay. But if we do… who’s going to vanish?”

Hoaqin hesitates. “H-huh? What do you mean by that? We’re one, but many! It’s not like one lives and the other disappears! All we want is to be the perfect sword!”

“No.” Vicente states. “It’s only been you. You were the one living as a perfect sword. More than one soul cannot be awake in one body, so the others were asleep.” 

Hoaqin’s lips twitch into a snarl, eyes glancing over to you, who was now next to the crocodile. By the time he was looking back to Vicente, he had continued to speak. “After we split, and got sealed in that unstable condition, I realized. I wasn’t awake for all of the years you climbed. It was only you, claiming the throne, and using our powers.”

Hoaqin grits his teeth. 

“It’s my turn now, Hoaqin. I’ll be the next slayer, and I’ll cut off our father’s head, and make him look back at me.”

“So, if you want to be awake, do you plan on eating me or something?!” Hoaqin laughs, jumping into the air. “Cut the crap!”

“Daniel, take out the small fry!” He orders, Daniel readying his abilities as the crocodile by your side rushes forward, meeting him in the middle.

A large explosion rings out in the center, Hoaqin and Vicente having struck each other’s blades.

Hoaqin begins to shout at the other boy, you watching passively as Wangnan rushes forward with the knife he had threatened you with, striking Vicente through the heart. He vanishes right after, Hoaqin’s eyes wide. “He vanished? What the hell did you do, blondie?!”

“Yihwa, burn ‘em all!” He shouts, charging away as the flames explode. He was followed by the others, you slightly disappointed by not being able to get the crocodile’s name. He seemed interesting.

Hoaqin cuts through the flame, bolting forwards before getting stopped as the path shifts, obscuring the retreating group from view. 

“Damn it! I was so close!” Hoaqin shouts, slashing at the new wall and scarring it. Walking over, you place a hand on his shoulder, him looking back (and up) at you. “Y/N...“ 

He sighs angrily. “Well, at least I got you back. Still, I was so damn close! That yellow guy just took him and ran!” He grumbles, grabbing your hand as he steps away and striding forward, you following without resistance. He turns down a hall, trailed by the normal group of evil-doers that followed him. “At this rate, how can I become one?!”

“Calm down, Hoaqin. Let’s go to the test, we need to get to the next floor anyway.” Daniel suggests.

He clicks his tongue, continuing down the hall.

-

"Wait, Rachel." Her head perks up as Hoaqin speaks, him still holding your hand. "Do you happen to know where the other copies are?"

You glance back at the blonde woman, her nodding. "A-ah, Emily knows where they were sealed, but they all seem to have gotten out…" 

He huffs. “So, locating them exactly is out of the question, huh?”

She nods again. “Unfortunately, it seems so…”

“Then who let them out…?” He mumbles, head lifting as a young girl’s voice calls his name. “What?”

You turn before he does, releasing his hand in order to approach her, tilting your head as you crouch down in front of her. You glance over your shoulder as Hoaqin jogs over, soon facing the girl again. 

“Anna?! Is that you?” Hoaqin asks, her slowly nodding as she looks at him, soon refocusing on you.

“Who are you?” 

“Me? Well… I’m Y/N.” You answer, mindlessly scratching your head as you stand up once more, looking down as Anna grabs the edge of your sleeve, her other arm still wrapped around her rabbit plushie. 

Hmm… every Hoaqin piece seems to like you. You’re like a Hoaqin whisperer.

Hoaqin grabs your hand once more, pulling you and Anna along.

-

“Why does she get to ride on your back?” Hoaqin pouts, you sending him an amused glance. 

“She asked.” 

Anna was on your back as you continued your trek, sound asleep while you carried her bunny for her. Looking around the group, you noticed the missing man, saying nothing. 

“Any idea of how close we are to the match?” You ask, Rachel answering. 

“About a week away. We still have a bit of traveling to do, so we’ll probably make it just in time.”

You hum. “That’s good to hear.” 

Hoaqin glances up at your peaceful face, wondering. You seemed more expressive since getting out of that room. It was still rather rare for you to show emotion, but you seemed less lifeless and more just unemotional. It wasn’t as worrisome to see your expression never move, as the face it never moved from was warmer. 

That was another thing he noticed… 

You were a rather warm person. 

When describing how you were in your past, you portrayed yourself as a workaholic who was cold and uncaring, but this present view of you seemed to be diverging from that path. Now, even if only through your eyes, you showed something. Before, you had slept so much it felt like he never got to see your eyes, but now you were awake. You were doing something, you were tagging along with him, you were helping one of his pieces. Quite frankly, he couldn’t wait to become whole once again, because as he had told you countless times, you would be his.

He wants your smile, your frown, your expressions, your emotion. He wants to see it all, He wants to have it all. 

He wants you.

Every bit of you.

He just needs to become one.

-

Approaching a sudden drop to an arena with Anna still practically attached to your hip, Hoaqin was… also practically attached to your hip. He wasn’t holding your hand, though. 

“It seems like Jue Viole Grace has yet to show himself.” Hoaqin states. “Let’s hope he doesn’t chicken out.”

You yawn, rubbing your neck with your free hand as you observe the large arena

“Did that bastard really run?”

“Hah! As if Viole would be afraid of a kid like you. Watch what you say.” Wangnan calls, from another entrance. “Even if it’s not Viole, we’ll beat you!”

Hoaqin gawks at the other team. “Vicente! Seriously?! You teamed up with those weaklings?! How far are you willing to go to beat me?!”

Your eyes fall to the girl at your side, who seems slightly conflicted as she stares at another one of her brothers.

Suddenly, you look up, feeling a surge in Shinsu a moment before it strikes down onto the center platform like lightning. A small group of people appears, including that red guide you had met a bit ago before Hoaqin dragged you away from her. 

“That’s Viole…” Hoaqin mumbles… a frown on his face. 

“Is Viole the black-haired one?” You ask, Hoaqin nodding. 

“Now Anna; that guy, Viole? He’s our enemy.” 

Anna finally separates from you as she follows Hoaqin’s lead in standing at the edge of the hall, looking down at them. “As always, a loud entrance, Jue Viole Grace.” He laughs. “I almost thought you were chickening out! I can respect your courage. Still, you’ll soon regret your decision to stay.”

Right as he finished, Vicente’s group began to shout at the new arrivals, filled with 'welcome back's and a shout of betrayal from the crocodile. 

Everyone went quiet as the man floating above the arena where Viole stood began to speak. He seemed to be the moderator.

"Now that the participating Regulars have gathered, we'll begin the event." He pauses for a moment, seemingly gathering his voice. "Hell Train Stage 4! The fight for the title of Slayer Nominee! A deathmatch! The test for this floor will be-" 

The screen behind him shows a golden coin, the words 'Dallar Show!' scrawled beneath in a swirly handwriting. "The Dallar Show!" He finishes.

You stare up as he continues explaining the game, uncaring to its history and relation to the 10 Great Families. In your experience, most of their kin were stuck-up and snobbish. They were the ones you gave up on approaching to form teams.

The Arie in front of you was… not prideful in his family so much as his own abilities, which, to be fair, did hold up.

"This test will have 3 rounds, with each consecutive round needing you to use the Dallars you earned in the previous! You can see this as a point-saving type of game!"

You hum, looking at Viole's group. Viole himself seemed to be the strongest of them, if his entrance meant anything, but he had a serious case of baby face that made you doubt his ability to kill. 

“Every regular will have Dallars given to them, and their teams sum will equal the opposing team's. Wangnan and Viole's groups will be merged and counted as one. The first round will take place here."

You continue to ignore him, still uncaring of the rules, only zoning back in as the Dallar on screen began to spin, glowing a bright white that blotted out your vision. Falling coins then came to your sight, and you got one marked with a 2.

"Let's begin the first round! The reward for this is 15 Dallars, and due to it being the first round, only two from each team will participate! If you have 10 Dallars, step up!"

You obviously didn't have it, but it appears Rachel and the dog guy did. You never really spoke to him enough to care about learning his name, but Rachel seemed to want to talk to you a lot. Thankfully, Hoaqin was there to be jealous and pull you away from her. 

There was just… something off about that girl.

“Let’s begin the first round! 10 Dallar Regulars, please get down to the stadium!”

As they do so, Anna steps back to pull you forward, sitting down on the edge with her legs swinging over it, you joining her. Hoaqin sits on your other side, looking over the roster for the battle. 

“We aren’t going to win this one.” You proclaim, Hoaqin raising an eyebrow. 

“What makes you say so?”

“The woman with candy; look at how she’s muttering and glaring at the dog guy. She’ll go after him, and I doubt this battle will just be as simple as catching a little fish, which Rachel doesn’t seem to realize. I can sense its Shinsu, and it's compressed. The blue guy knows what he’s doing; he’s probably the second most dangerous after Viole, just based on his intelligence. His posture is completely relaxed, confident. Even if Rachel knows that the fish isn’t just a guppy, she’ll have no chance to catch it; her lighthouses aren’t strong enough.” You explain, Hoaqin’s expression growing impressed. 

“Hmm… you make a strong point. Let’s see how this goes.”

The moment the battle begins, the candy lady launches at the dog guy, and the blue guy begins to speak to Rachel, allowing her a chance to catch the fish. You gently shake your head, laying back. “This battle was over before it even started.”

Hoaqin would admit; he was impressed. Your quick, accurate deductions weren’t something that just anyone could do. You were smart, that much was clear. 

“Hmph. Pathetic.” He watches as the suddenly enlarged fish flies up, its roar echoing as it focuses on the one who fished it out, beginning its descent in order to swallow her whole.

It was stopped by the Khun, whose lighthouses swung around it, catching it in an invisible prison. He says a few words to her collapsed form, her fists clenching against the floor.

“Khun Aguero Agnes caught the Sweetfish! The round goes to Viole Grace’s team! All participating Regulars, please return to your teams!”

After a brief pause, the participants returned to the hall, you having stood up with your Hoaqins doing the same. Hoaqin’s eyes trail after Rachel as she passes, ignoring the dog guy. “It was an interesting match. You’ve shown how pathetic you are, and it really makes me wonder… just how did you get up here? I suppose I should’ve been more careful when designating you as a useful one.” 

His vague smile grows more into a sneer, one only she could see. “Don’t even think of participating in any more matches. You won’t be anywhere near me in battle unless you want to be missing a limb.” The threat was clear. He was trying to keep her from the one person Hoaqin had been around for so long, someone whose abilities she was doing her best to gauge.

You. 

Her golden eyes meet yours for a moment, quickly looking away. Your eyebrow raises as you stare at her back, your gaze then shifting to the white boy at your side, his normal cocky grin on his lips.

Your attention is drawn back to the arena momentarily as a 20 minute break is announced, you taking the chance to lean against the wall and sit down. Your group broke off into smaller pairs, Hoaqin’s pieces gravitating in your direction. You close your eyes as Anna sits down next to you, leaning into your side. You don’t react any further as Hoaqin joins you both, laying his head in your lap.

And with that, you took a small nap, at least until the platform you were on started to move. You got the Hoaqins off of you and stood up as the floor slid away from the walls, everything beginning to shift as a cage with hostages came into view, hanging above you. Pipes filled the area, twisting and coiling around the empty space, surrounding a brightly glowing core that seemingly beat, thrumming with life.

“Welcome!” The announcer, moderator guy calls out. “This is the stage for the second round!”

You peeked over the edge, watching the core with dull fascination. It reminded you much of a human heart, its steady pulses copying the rhythm. Mesmerizing…

You lift your head as you end up in a pipe. “Huh. That was sudden.”

Looking around, you don’t see anyone near you. “Well. This blows.” 

Sighing, you begin to walk in the direction of where you sensed Hoaqin and Anna’s Shinsu. 

Then you sensed Vicente’s Shinsu.

Then you sensed another signature, similar to the other pieces of the whole. 

It was weird, to be fully honest, and you didn’t think about it too much as you flipped and spun your Dallar, continuing to walk. Staring at the ceiling as you meander forwards, you come to a stop as the pieces’ Shinsu vanishes, the hair on the back of your neck standing as a cold wave of power hits you, its center being Hoaqin. 

“Did he actually…?” You mumble, looking down the dark pipe. “I should probably pick up my pace…” Humming, you begin to run, brows furrowed. “It doesn’t seem like he’s fully one, as his power isn’t too overwhelming, but I could guess he got the three that I sensed.” You speak, organizing your thoughts. “Then where’s the last-” You come to a stop as a girl floats in front of you. 

“-one. Are you the last sibling?” You ask, her floating in a circle around you, observing. 

“I’m impressed you figured it out so quick. Yes, I am.” She smiles, moving closer to you. “I can see why Hoaqin and the others found you so interesting.”

“Really, because I can’t.” You sigh. “It’s been nice meeting you, but Hoaqin just ate his other siblings and I doubt it’ll be long ‘til he sees you. You seem strong though.”

Her smile widens. “Thank you. But I’m afraid it wouldn’t be wise to leave just yet. Hoaqin and Jue Viole Grace have just met again. It’s not safe for you.”

You stretch your neck. “If I’m confident in one thing, it’s my defense. Nothing has been able to penetrate it since the 20th floor, but if you say it’s unsafe, I suppose I’ll listen.” You sit down again, her landing in front of you and sitting on her knees. 

“This battle won’t last for very long, but I’ll bring you straight to the core afterwards.”

“Oh, good. Hoaqin probably wouldn’t be too happy if I up and disappeared again. Well, if I stayed gone.”

“Are you ever gonna call him his Slayer name?” She asks, tilting her head.

“Did he ever mention his Slayer name…? I can’t remember. I’ll probably just call him Hoaqin until he tells me to call him otherwise.”

“Do you even know it?”

“Can’t remember, so I guess no.”

“It’s White.”

“White, huh? I guess it fits him, considering his Arie heritage and freakishly pale skin.” 

She giggles, standing up. “Alright, It’s time to go.”

“Already? I guess sitting down was useless then…” You sigh, getting up. 

She dusts off her skirt, holding her hand out. “Do I just, uh…” You mumble, her rolling her eyes and grabbing your hand as your vision gets enveloped by a bright light. 

The next thing you knew, you were standing in front of a large group, with Jue Viole Grace walking in as everyone turns to face you, alarmed. “Huh. She moved me to the wrong place I guess.” 

The Khun walks up to you, lighthouses menacingly floating behind him as he stares you down. “Who are you, and what are you doing in our area?”

“Oh, I’m Y/N. I met Hoaqin’s last piece and she moved me here instead of to the other place. I’m not here to cause a fight, I never really wanted to be part of this entire thing anyway.” You drawl. “Before you ask, I was with Hoaqin because I was sealed in the same room before him, so I got to know him over the 600 years we were in there.”

Khun hums, beginning to do some digging.

“White’s last clone?” Viole asks, running up. 

“Yep. She seemed pretty powerful.”

“You are the blank turtle I saw!” The crocodile shouts. 

“And you’re the compressed dragon-lookin’ guy.” 

He huffs happily. “Dragon! That’s what they should call me! I like you, Blank Turtle!”

“Hm? Did you say something, crocodile?” Khun asks, looking up. 

“Blue Turtle, one day I will hunt you down and kill you!”

Your lips twitch up, a small smile on your face as you watch Viole try to calm down his squabbling team. Khun’s eyes widen as he finishes his searches, your face already back to its blank slate as he looks up.

“You’re known as Y/N, the Cursed.”

“Sounds about right.” You sigh, sitting down. 

“It’s believed that you made a pact with a demon in order to gain the ultimate defense, and it kills all your teammates as a sacrifice.”

“Now that’s wrong. If I had a pact with a demon that killed my teammates, Hoaqin would be dead.” You bluntly refute.

“Well now I kinda wish you did.” Khun shrugs, ignoring Rak's complaints about how cool your nickname sounded.

“This last match will be a one-on-one, so I doubt my team-killer status will be of much effect. Actually, I want to test something; Dragon, that spear of yours is a special throwing spear, right?”

Khun’s eyes stay on you. How did you figure that out?

“Well… decompress and throw it at me as hard as you can. I want to see how much my defenses have improved.”

You could sense the flow of Shinsu in that spear, with its main flow points being from the grip and from the bottom, with a more concentrated amount at the bottom as compared to normal throwing spears. 

“Yes! I will do my best to annihilate you!” He cheers, decompressing and jumping back as Khun holds Viole back from getting involved. The other group members make the wise decision to not interfere at all.

Reeling his arm back, Rak soon launches it towards you, the spear flying at you at an impressive speed. Dust kicks up around it as it flies at you, obscuring you from view as it impacts with the sound of something ripping.

It goes silent for a few seconds, only to be interrupted by your monotone voice. “Damnit. I wasn’t thinking about how it would affect my clothes.”

You sigh, stepping back into view with a top that was essentially a crop top, and a small one at that. You toss the spear back over to Rak, thanking him and ignoring everyone else’s stares as you begin to converse with the rather dumb lizard.

Your torso was littered with scars from before you became an impenetrable shield, still having done your best to block attacks from hitting any of your teammates. It didn’t matter in the end, they all died anyway, but you still tried as hard as you could to protect them, even as fate clawed their souls to the afterlife.

You knew it was useless, and that they would die, and yet you couldn’t bring yourself to either betray the promise to the Lightbearer or give up on trying to defend those who joined you.

It was a pitiful existence, really.

Getting sealed was the first time that you felt as if maybe, just maybe, you had helped your team.  You really did hope they survived, and yet you couldn’t help but doubt. If they were your teammates, were they truly cursed to die early?

I’ll have to dip into other fandoms to explain my point but I’ll try to stick to big ones so most people can follow along.

Because so many shoujo mangas/animes are targeted towards younger people there’s this sort of unspoken rule that if a character is going to be in the main cast they have to be good, or at least on their way to being good. But when you combine that with too many side characters that you can’t spend any real time on them or if it’s an adaptation of something and the writers are trying to make a character more palatable you end up getting this forced, awkward sudden turn around or a ‘surprise! they were good all along! they just had (bad) reasons to act like a shitty human being.’ And not only is it majorly unsatisfying if you take any time to analyze these characters but it creates this sort of precedent of victims being expected to forgive their abusers or, in the worst case, outright victim-blaming in an attempt to make the “redeemed” character look good. The latter is usually by the fans of said redeemed character and it’s gross.

Before I go on let me make this clear, you can have bad characters, you can have redeemed characters, you can have problematic characters and relationships, half the reason we have media is to explore that shit, but don’t try to tell me or make me believe a morally wrong character is actually good when you’ve put none of the work in. 

Fairy Tail and Naruto were really bad for this. One of the main signs they were trying to make a bad character look good is if they keep flashing back to their Tragic Story whenever that character is doing something shitty or when that character is apologizing. It’s a great flashing “See! This character isn’t that bad! Pity them! :P”  And asking the audience to forgive a character after 20 seconds of sad footage with absolutely no set up is one thing, but having their victims only ever forgive them and move on is not only lazy it massively under-represents real life victims. And you see the clash in the fandom, people who love the redeemed characters just rage on fans who accurately point out that an apology or a sad past does NOT equal redemption or forgiveness and it is UNCOMFORTABLE to watch. 

I get that you relate to this shitty character but please don’t pretend that you loving them makes them a good character.

In Naruto Itachi’s grand “He’s a good person!” reveal comes after he tricks Sasuke into killing him, which comes after he tortured Sasuke twice (something he wasn’t forced to do unlike some of the rest of the shit he did) and so many fans decided he was a perfectly good person and ignored how even that last act, meant to be about Itachi punishing himself for the shit he himself did, fucked over his brother, but I’m still supposed to believe he was a good character all along. And in Fairy Tail Minerva beats the shit out of Lucy for no other reason than that she can, but later I’m supposed to believe that she suddenly had a change of heart with no other set up than the, also, abusive Guild Master was no longer there to encourage it or that she’s actually done anything to deserve that redemption.

Again, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t like these characters, or that you shouldn’t like morally questionable characters, but if you can’t like them without distorting them in your head to make them good maybe you should take a better look at why you like them. 

In ToG literally no character gets a redemption arc despite the fact that they have all done some pretty awful things. The greatest example of this that I can think of is Hoaquin. As an audience we’re in the train being told how terrible and awful this guy is and then we get hit with a flashback, and it shows us that he does have some sad shit; all he ever wanted was the approval of his father, and it is his father’s callous disregard and neglect that causes Hoaquin to go to such extremes. And it’s following the shoujo formula, or at least the start of it. But then in that same flashback (sort of) we’re also told that Hoaquin had no intention of ever letting one of his siblings lead their weird body-horror-group-project and deliberately mislead them as to what the spell would do. It is so important that he is roughly the same age in both scenes because we are, in fast succession, given a reason to sympathize with him, and then a reminder that even that young he was a manipulative little shit that cared about no one’s life or ambitions more than his own.