#deleted scene

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - “Well, he spends more than Lui.”

Kris laughed. “Free time,” she repeated, sounding out the words as if they were some hilarious joke.

“Um… yes?” Aiger cocked an eyebrow, stumped. “Why? What is it?”

She gave her head a rueful shake, braid tossing against her pauldrons. “There’s no such thing with you around, Your Majesty.”

He guffawed. “Excuse me?”

“Consider it a testament to your vitality.”

He slumped against his crutch, his hazy indigo shadow mirroring the decompression. “Oh, no. Don’t say that.”

“What?”

“I do give you time off, don’t I? I’m serious. Do you need more? You can have it.”

She snorted, waving away the concern. “That’s not what I meant, Your Majesty. I'm trying to say that, as your captain, it’s my responsibility to worry about you, whether I'm on duty or not. And, as your friend,” she emphasized the word by blowing out her cheeks and Aiger rolled his eyes, “my worrying, frankly, never stops.”

“Even with four grown men constantly babysitting me?”

“Honestly, I don't think Free spends that much time on you.”

“Well, he spends more than Lui.”

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - Duchess de la Hoya

Mostly cuz I liked her outfit description… :D

“That was a lovely dance.”

Kris blinked and turned around. “Duchess?”

And sure enough, standing behind her was none other than the matriarch of the de la Hoya family. Free’s mother. Much like her son, the duchess was tall and lean, and possessed a mane of thick, golden-blonde hair. Hers had been braided back into an intricate, bead-studded weave especially for the ball, and her dress--an elegant red gown with a feathery, cathedral-style train and sleeves slit up to the elbows--had obviously been selected with just as much thought. “Kristina,” the woman bowed, her voluminous skirt swaying forwards like a furling wing.

Kris bowed.

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - Yellow Eye

“Guh—” the Snake gasped. “Buh-Bisuke—yuh-you would betr-tray—you would betray Ashtem?”

The small-statured spy just sneered. “Rih-Rih-Richard,” he mimed, voice pitching sing-song high, his stained-pink eyelids scrunching in a remorseless taunt. “Yuh-you would buh-buh-betray His Majesty?”

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - another Shu/Detonation idea

The house was a mess of cinders and smoke. Jets of golden sparks bloomed like flowers through the air, swarming like fireflies before raining to the ground, popping and skittering against the stone road. The smog pouring out the windows was as thick as a river. Each breath felt like drinking tar. Walls of flame roared and sputtered, weaving all across the exterior and painting it a blinding wash of red. The house was charring, withering, dissolving right before Fubuki’s eyes.

“Sh-Shu?” the young lieutenant choked, staring through the blaze where he’d last seen his captain. “Shu? Shu!”

He’d been on the bottom landing, about to come out, almost out--less than twenty feet away--when the rafters had exploded, showering beams, floor planks, and torrents of glass. He had to be trapped--or crushed--no, he couldn’t be crushed--Fubuki refused to believe he was crushed--entombed inside. Just think, he gagged, forcing himself to think straight. How would he get out? Where’s the exit? Where’s the exit?

It was then that he heard a trilling smash--the crystalline rush of a window pane bursting apart.

Heart leaping to his throat, Fubuki staggered into a sprint around the side of the house.

He saw a man falling. A man covered in flames, a trail of smoke tracing his dive

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - smaller now

Valt was thinner than Chiharu had ever seen him. The lean muscle he’d built up in the Tower concealed the fact somewhat, but not well enough to pass her scrutiny. Not with the plain white tee Dr. Kurenai’s team had provided hanging loose from his neck and stomach, or with the hollows that’d sunken out of his face, creating sharp lines out of his cheekbones.

He’d washed up and, under the dirt and grime, his sun-divorced skin was paler than a January blizzard, the deep, reddish scar under his eye popping as fiercely as an inkblot on fresh paper. His dark hair had dried slightly poofed, the long, unevenly trimmed ends falling over his neck and ears, cut just short enough to stay out of his eyes. His eyes, which…

[notmuchtoconceal]

GENDO IKARI: Yes, Cpt. Katsuragi. Room alone with my son as his legal guardian. It would do him some good to receive a woman's influence.

MISATO KATSURAGI: What do you mean... sir?

[pushes up his glassess and smirks]

The commander didn't just... give me permission?

I have to tell Ritsuko.

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - in the storm

Rain bit through Kris’s surcoat, chewing, needle-sharp and cold, into her neck. Mud and pulped leaves stuck to her greaves. Her chest heaved. Her hair was plastered to her scalp, slicked with sweat, and, overhead, the storm clouds cracked and squealed, caterwauling with lightning. Her sword, hanging point-down from her fist, flashed. The steel of the other knights blitzed white between the trees--armor, weapons--all catching the glow at once.

She sucked in a coppery breath and, raising her left arm high, twirled an index finger at the sky. “Tie them up!” she shouted.

“Yes, sir!”

And, while a team of six or so dragged themselves forward, reaching for what supplies they’d need to secure the Snake Pit’s newly demoralized members, Kris looked around and realized that her second lieutenant was missing.

“Ivan,” she gasped, turning to the knight standing nearest her. “Where did Rantaro go?”

He lifted his shoulder. “With the captain maybe?”

“The captain…?” It was then that, with a horrible sinking feeling, Kris realized that her father had disappeared as well.

---

“C-Captain…” Rantaro spluttered, his mouth half-filled with mud, his feet scrabbling against the washed-out roots that clawed at his clothes like fingers. His ears were ringing, caked with pulped leaves, and he couldn’t hear himself. A thin crimson line split the bridge of his nose, marking where his senior officer had tried to slam a sword through it, each bubble of blood licked away by the water running from his spongy hair. “Wh-what are you--? Captain! Captain!”

Lightning split the sky overhead and his eyes filled with its flash as it blitzed off the other man’s advancing blade. Rantaro’s heart leapt to his throat and he reflexively crushed his eyes shut. A blotchy afterimage of his captain, swirling and insubstantial, accompanied him still, his face sunken to black behind the visor of his rain-slick helmet.

“C-Ca-augh!” his voice broke, pitching high as the point of the captain’s sword slipped to his throat, just barely touching his skin. Wh-why? What did I do? Rantaro squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his skull back, into the gunk and puddles of the forest floor, his breath clipping, hot and fast, out of his chest.

[theheropose]

Deleted scene - Shinoda’s Wings, in action

A wash of light trickled from Salvager’s inventory, adhering to his skin, dripping down his knuckles and curving along the line of his wrist. Where it touched, Venom saw, a faint white mist rose.

That’s… he faltered. Not exactly what I was expecting.

Then, a dam seemed to break. A torrent of the glowing liquid burst from Shinoda’s screen, splashing down Salvager’s arm, slapping him across the chest and neck. He jerked his head, startled, trying to keep his nose clear of the stuff. Roar, however, gripped him urgently by the hair and forced him to take a faceful of it. Salvager spluttered and gasped, but the substance continued to pour over him. It sloshed up into his hair, matting it, and coursed down towards his ravaged leg, a thick fog building around him as the whitish mist continued to rise.

“Roar,” Venom hissed, kneading his intact knuckles anxiously against the top of his knee. “What’s--?”

“Just hold on,” the blonde man said. “Watch his leg. You’ll see.”

Venom pressed his mouth into a line, but didn’t argue, swiping the air clear and pinning back his bangs. Salvager’s infected leg, surrounded by a puddle of rank-smelling blood, had been drenched in Shinoda’s strange Wings, wrapped almost as if with a liquid cast.

What’s…? he thought, leaning closer as the glowing substance dissolved into his companion’s skin, warping around the bulging veins. Inflammation’s just as bad, but… the Starving Silver’s stopped moving?