Emptiness
By: Black Dranzer
"." speaking and thinking
---------- Scene Change
--flashback sequences--
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. I only own any of the characters that you haven't seen in the original Beyblade series.
----------
In the last chapter of Emptiness:
(("You may not have heard of me, but I call myself Changer," the girl replied and picked up her Beyblade.
"Well 'Changer' care to test me out?" this was clearly a challenge.
"Definitely," the girl replied and both Beyblades shot into the hedges.))
(("That was impressive," Tala said, "not only have you beaten us, but you have the power to create new attacks for your bit beast as well."
Kazuki didn't know what to reply.
She had expected the other boy to argue over whether she had truly won or not.
"I guess," she replied, then added as an afterthought, "I suppose you guys weren't too bad either,"
An awkward silence followed.))
(("I think that's enough for today then as it seems she is not coming back any time soon,"
The others nodded and they returned to their own training inside the building.
Tala however, when the others weren't watching, followed the girl's freshly made footprints.))
-----------
Chapter Nine: Consciousness
"What did I just do?" Kazuki scolded herself as she sat on a large rock beside a frozen river, "I had made it clear to myself that I won't talk to them," Even communicating with another person, it seemed, gave Kazuki the chills.
She shook her head, there were too many things going on right now, she had to relax.
And the best way she relaxes was by playing her wooden flute. She reached behind her and pulled out the flute that she carried around with her on her belt.
Thinking of a right tune, she closed her eyes and let her fingers flow over the smooth wood.
The tune played out soft and comforting; it was the tune her mother used to play to her when she couldn't sleep.
Her mother's face hang in front of her closed vision as she played and she forced herself not to cry.
Instead, she imagined the times when she had had fun with her loving mother, Anna Takesuke.
Absorbed in her memory, she didn't notice a figure rising up behind her nor that her own shoulders where shaking.
A hand rested on her shoulder that made her jump.
She turned around and jabbed out the tip of her flute, right at the person's throat.
"Danger sensed." The digital voice that Kazuki had heard before confirmed, "Attack or defend?"
"Quit form," Kazuki replied with annoyance as she found that she couldn't move.
But the voice returned, "Attack or defend?"
"Quit," she said out loud.
"Attack or defend?"
"Just quit already!" Kazuki shouted out with fustration.
"Attack or defend?"
"Stop!" she shouted back, not noticing the stranger was still there.
"Acknowledged, danger form disengaged."
"Finally," she growled at herself, and caught her breath as she noticed she still had her flute at the intruder's throat.
It seemed that it took less than a millisecond to converse with the voice.
Tala's aqua-blue eyes were looking back at her with a confused look.
Slowly, she lowered the flute and sat back down on the rock.
"What are you doing here?" she asked and mentally kicked herself for talking to him again.
But there was something about Tala that broke through all her non-verbal walls.
Tala was quiet for a moment, as he hadn't decided what to say yet.
Then he replied slowly, "I was just walking by," he paused, feeling awkward at the lie, "were you crying?"
"Cry? Me?" Kazuki smirked, hiding her fear below her arrogant face, "Don't go making assumptions."
Tala shrugged, "If you say so,"
"If you don't mind, I would like to be alone," Kazuki said coldly and turned around, clenching her flute.
"If you say so," Tala replied as if not caring and turned to go.
"But why was she crying?" Tala thought to himself.
"I was NOT crying," a growled behind him.
Tala turned around with wide eyes.
"Did you just..?" he started, but decided he was careless and said the thought out loud.
"Just what?" the girl glared at him with a growl, "Just countered you when you made that stupid assumption?"
"No," Tala growled back and turned to go again.
"Did he really see me cry?" a voice came from behind him.
"Yea I saw you," Tala replied, stopping again.
This time, it was Kazuki's turn to look up surprised.
"Wait, I didn't say that out loud," she whispered.
The two stared at each other for a while, confused.
"This can't be real," Kazuki thought to herself, "I must be hallucinating,"
"Then I'm hallucinating too," a voice replied.
"Who?" Kazuki asked as she looked around.
"Me I guess," Tala replied standing to face her.
"You can't have said that," Kazuki said, "Your mouth wasn't moving."
"But my mind was," Tala replied.
"Your mind," Kazuki said with a skeptical look, "So you're saying we can read each other's minds?"
"It's your choice if you believe or not," a voice said, but Kazuki saw distinctively that Tala's mouth wasn't moving.
"Fine, let's try this out," Kazuki thought, closing her mouth and glaring at Tala, "Can you hear this?"
"Yea, a bit to loud to say the truth," Tala's thought came back as clearly as if it was being said.
"Great, now I've got a guy who has the ability to read my mind on my case," Kazuki thought, burying her head in her hands.
"On your case?" Tala thought back with a raised eyebrow.
"Arghh!" Kazuki thought back, "Now I can't even think in peace,"
Tala frowned, "Fine, I'll just shut off my receiver,"
Kazuki's head lifted up, "Your receiver?" she thought, and "You mean your ears?"
"No," Tala replied silently folding his arms, "My RECIEVER, as in the program in me that receives signals from the main computer in the abbey,"
"You mean you're a.." Kazuki thought with wide eyes.
"A what?" Tala countered, frowning, he didn't really like where this was heading.
"Cyborg," Kazuki replied, opening her mouth, "Are you a cyborg?"
"Obviously," Tala replied with is mouth bitterly, then turned around to leave. He didn't like discussing this particular topic.
Kazuki's mind was a jumble of thoughts.
But one particular one surfaced above the others, "I've met another like me,"
On his way towards the abbey, Tala heard the transmitted message.
"Another like her?" Tala thought, not minding if the thought reached Kazuki as he had shut down his transmitter.
He turned around and saw the girl sit down with a lonesome look on her face.
He saw her close her eyes and start to play her flute again.
The melody this time was low and depressing.
"Maybe I should have attempted to communicate more with him," he heard her trail of thoughts.
"Maybe I should open myself more to others,"
"No, that will just end up like the last time," he heard her thoughts change hard.
"Just like the ones that left me after.." the thought didn't finish.
Tala felt something tugging at his brain.
But he kept his transmitter shut stubbornly.
"Just wait a few more moments," he thought to himself, "Maybe she'll prefer to be left alone,"
There were no thoughts from Kazuki for a few moments after that and the melody ended.
He saw the girl put down her flute and begin to walk away.
He decided not to interfere and turned to go when a last, lingering thought came through his receiver.
"I wonder if all cyborg's can communicate with each other. But that doesn't matter, I know no other cyborgs and I doubt that he would want to see me ever again, forget conversing,"
Tala bit his lip.
Would he mind sharing thoughts with someone? Especially if that someone was also like him.
He remembered the shaking shoulders of the seemingly though-as-rock girl.
"Would it hurt?" he thought to himself as his mind fought over whether to talk to the girl or not.
"Would it hurt?" he heard his thought echoed by Kazuki's transmitter.
----------
Two Beyblades, one blood red and one blue, clashed against each other as they winded around thorn hedges with their masters running behind them.
"Go Dranzer!" Kai commanded to his Beyblade and a fiery phoenix heeded his command.
Fiery arrows were fired at the opponent, who dodged skillfully.
"Spectrya!" the girl running beside Kai shouted. A black ball of light appeared out of the bit of the blood red Beyblade and hung there.
Kai looked at the ball of light and waited for it to move. Silence rang throughout the hedge maze.
Finally, sensing that the bit beast wasn't about to attack, Kai called upon Dranzer, "Flame Saber!"
The phoenix charged towards Spectrya, all the while attacking it with streams of flaming swords.
"Illusionist's Eye!" Changer countered and her bit beast took the shape of an eyeball.
Its purple iris shone a flow of light at Dranzer, stopping it in its tracks.
"Dranzer!" Kai shouted with a frown. He didn't like the sounds of that attack.
The eyeball started to change shape and a few seconds later, it had taken the shape of Dranzer.
"Attack him Spectrya!" Changer shouted, smirking to herself that at Kai's surprise.
"Black Dranzer," the boy thought with remorse, "But it's long gone now, I can't let it rule my fears."
"Counterattack Dranzer!" Kai shouted as his own bit beast came back to life, "Don't let that cheap copy faze you!"
The two phoenix' slammed against each other and a giant flash of light blinded both bladers.
The light died down and the two Beyblades could be seen lying beside each other.
Both had been knocked out.
Kai and Changer stared at their Beyblades, not believing that they could have tied.
"That was a worthwhile battle," Changer spoke up first.
"You were a worthy opponent," Kai responded and they looked at each other for a moment, mahogany eyes staring at turquoise ones.
Then Kai noticed a long cut on changer's left shoulder.
Probably caused by the flying thorns.
The rustling of bushes broke the silence.
As Kai turned around to look in the direction of the commotion, and Changer silently slipped away.
"Where..?" Kai asked as he turned around and saw no one there.
"Kai!" Max yelled as he ran up to the blue-haired Beyblader, "We've been looking for you!"
"Hey Kai," Ray greeted.
Tyson, Kenny, Robert, Oliver, Enrique and Johnny followed behind the Chinese beyblader.
"What happened here?" came a voice behind the Majestics. Jackie came into view looking at the mess the beybattle between Kai and Changer had caused with her lavender eyes.
"I just had a beybattle with the one you called Changer," Kai said directly to the Majestics.
"Who won?" Tyson asked.
"Neither of us," Kai said and started to walk back to the mansion.
Tyson looked confused.
Ray sighed and cleared up for him, "It was a draw Tyson,"
"Oh, because I thought a draw is when you both win, not when you both lose. Wait. Is that the same? Maybe not..Oh well, but I think you should have said it more clearly Kai, to avoid the others being confused you know?"
Kai rolled his eyes. As he passed Jackie, he saw that she had a familiar thorn cut on her arm.
"Where did you get that?" he asked suspiciously.
"What?" Jackie asked, then, looking down at the cut, she searched her brain for an answer, "I got it while I was coming here," she finally said, covering her cut with her hand, "The thorns are sharp you know,"
"It's a rather peculiar cut to get while walking through the maze," Kai observed.
"Well..Um.." Jackie sputtered as she failed to find an answer.
"Doesn't that suggest that she ran here?" Johnny said, coming to his sister's rescue.
Kai glared at Johnny but before he can say another word, Tyson's stomach growled.
"Can we go back to the mansion now?" Tyson whined and pointed to his stomach, "I'm hungry."
"But Tyson," Enrique said in a disbelieving voice, "You just had ninety plates of food for lunch!"
"Counting on that it's Tyson," Robert laughed, "nine hundred plates won't be enough."
Everyone laughed and started to walk back to the mansion.
Kai hesitated before following the others.
----------
Kazuki's dark form can be seen on her bed in her small dormitory. Lost in her own thoughts, she was startled as a familiar voice entered her mind.
"Do you still mind my thoughts?"
It was Tala.
"No, I suppose not," she replied in her mind hesitantly, "Why?"
There was a pause.
"It isn't much," Tala responded slowly, as if hiding something.
"Are you hiding something?" Kazuki asked.
It wasn't until a moment later that she noticed she was actually enjoying the company of Tala's voice.
"Nothing important," Tala replied shortly.
"Of course, I respect your privacy," Kazuki replied.
She sighed both inside and outside and flipped herself on her back and laid on her bed with her hands spread out.
"Tomorrow's training destination's changed," Tala said after the second round of silence, "I think the river's a much better training location,"
"Alright," Kazuki replied, shutting down her transmitter and receiver the best she knew how as she was still new to the concept.
"Too bad I don't know to shut off my visual receivers," Kazuki thought in the silence, "But I doubt that could shut away these nightmares I have each night"
And her words were proved right as the face of her beloved mother appeared in front of her unconscious vision.
--To be continued
----------
Note: I've uploaded some pictures onto my fanfic site at Check the gallery section for pictures!
By: Black Dranzer
"." speaking and thinking
---------- Scene Change
--flashback sequences--
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. I only own any of the characters that you haven't seen in the original Beyblade series.
----------
In the last chapter of Emptiness:
(("You may not have heard of me, but I call myself Changer," the girl replied and picked up her Beyblade.
"Well 'Changer' care to test me out?" this was clearly a challenge.
"Definitely," the girl replied and both Beyblades shot into the hedges.))
(("That was impressive," Tala said, "not only have you beaten us, but you have the power to create new attacks for your bit beast as well."
Kazuki didn't know what to reply.
She had expected the other boy to argue over whether she had truly won or not.
"I guess," she replied, then added as an afterthought, "I suppose you guys weren't too bad either,"
An awkward silence followed.))
(("I think that's enough for today then as it seems she is not coming back any time soon,"
The others nodded and they returned to their own training inside the building.
Tala however, when the others weren't watching, followed the girl's freshly made footprints.))
-----------
Chapter Nine: Consciousness
"What did I just do?" Kazuki scolded herself as she sat on a large rock beside a frozen river, "I had made it clear to myself that I won't talk to them," Even communicating with another person, it seemed, gave Kazuki the chills.
She shook her head, there were too many things going on right now, she had to relax.
And the best way she relaxes was by playing her wooden flute. She reached behind her and pulled out the flute that she carried around with her on her belt.
Thinking of a right tune, she closed her eyes and let her fingers flow over the smooth wood.
The tune played out soft and comforting; it was the tune her mother used to play to her when she couldn't sleep.
Her mother's face hang in front of her closed vision as she played and she forced herself not to cry.
Instead, she imagined the times when she had had fun with her loving mother, Anna Takesuke.
Absorbed in her memory, she didn't notice a figure rising up behind her nor that her own shoulders where shaking.
A hand rested on her shoulder that made her jump.
She turned around and jabbed out the tip of her flute, right at the person's throat.
"Danger sensed." The digital voice that Kazuki had heard before confirmed, "Attack or defend?"
"Quit form," Kazuki replied with annoyance as she found that she couldn't move.
But the voice returned, "Attack or defend?"
"Quit," she said out loud.
"Attack or defend?"
"Just quit already!" Kazuki shouted out with fustration.
"Attack or defend?"
"Stop!" she shouted back, not noticing the stranger was still there.
"Acknowledged, danger form disengaged."
"Finally," she growled at herself, and caught her breath as she noticed she still had her flute at the intruder's throat.
It seemed that it took less than a millisecond to converse with the voice.
Tala's aqua-blue eyes were looking back at her with a confused look.
Slowly, she lowered the flute and sat back down on the rock.
"What are you doing here?" she asked and mentally kicked herself for talking to him again.
But there was something about Tala that broke through all her non-verbal walls.
Tala was quiet for a moment, as he hadn't decided what to say yet.
Then he replied slowly, "I was just walking by," he paused, feeling awkward at the lie, "were you crying?"
"Cry? Me?" Kazuki smirked, hiding her fear below her arrogant face, "Don't go making assumptions."
Tala shrugged, "If you say so,"
"If you don't mind, I would like to be alone," Kazuki said coldly and turned around, clenching her flute.
"If you say so," Tala replied as if not caring and turned to go.
"But why was she crying?" Tala thought to himself.
"I was NOT crying," a growled behind him.
Tala turned around with wide eyes.
"Did you just..?" he started, but decided he was careless and said the thought out loud.
"Just what?" the girl glared at him with a growl, "Just countered you when you made that stupid assumption?"
"No," Tala growled back and turned to go again.
"Did he really see me cry?" a voice came from behind him.
"Yea I saw you," Tala replied, stopping again.
This time, it was Kazuki's turn to look up surprised.
"Wait, I didn't say that out loud," she whispered.
The two stared at each other for a while, confused.
"This can't be real," Kazuki thought to herself, "I must be hallucinating,"
"Then I'm hallucinating too," a voice replied.
"Who?" Kazuki asked as she looked around.
"Me I guess," Tala replied standing to face her.
"You can't have said that," Kazuki said, "Your mouth wasn't moving."
"But my mind was," Tala replied.
"Your mind," Kazuki said with a skeptical look, "So you're saying we can read each other's minds?"
"It's your choice if you believe or not," a voice said, but Kazuki saw distinctively that Tala's mouth wasn't moving.
"Fine, let's try this out," Kazuki thought, closing her mouth and glaring at Tala, "Can you hear this?"
"Yea, a bit to loud to say the truth," Tala's thought came back as clearly as if it was being said.
"Great, now I've got a guy who has the ability to read my mind on my case," Kazuki thought, burying her head in her hands.
"On your case?" Tala thought back with a raised eyebrow.
"Arghh!" Kazuki thought back, "Now I can't even think in peace,"
Tala frowned, "Fine, I'll just shut off my receiver,"
Kazuki's head lifted up, "Your receiver?" she thought, and "You mean your ears?"
"No," Tala replied silently folding his arms, "My RECIEVER, as in the program in me that receives signals from the main computer in the abbey,"
"You mean you're a.." Kazuki thought with wide eyes.
"A what?" Tala countered, frowning, he didn't really like where this was heading.
"Cyborg," Kazuki replied, opening her mouth, "Are you a cyborg?"
"Obviously," Tala replied with is mouth bitterly, then turned around to leave. He didn't like discussing this particular topic.
Kazuki's mind was a jumble of thoughts.
But one particular one surfaced above the others, "I've met another like me,"
On his way towards the abbey, Tala heard the transmitted message.
"Another like her?" Tala thought, not minding if the thought reached Kazuki as he had shut down his transmitter.
He turned around and saw the girl sit down with a lonesome look on her face.
He saw her close her eyes and start to play her flute again.
The melody this time was low and depressing.
"Maybe I should have attempted to communicate more with him," he heard her trail of thoughts.
"Maybe I should open myself more to others,"
"No, that will just end up like the last time," he heard her thoughts change hard.
"Just like the ones that left me after.." the thought didn't finish.
Tala felt something tugging at his brain.
But he kept his transmitter shut stubbornly.
"Just wait a few more moments," he thought to himself, "Maybe she'll prefer to be left alone,"
There were no thoughts from Kazuki for a few moments after that and the melody ended.
He saw the girl put down her flute and begin to walk away.
He decided not to interfere and turned to go when a last, lingering thought came through his receiver.
"I wonder if all cyborg's can communicate with each other. But that doesn't matter, I know no other cyborgs and I doubt that he would want to see me ever again, forget conversing,"
Tala bit his lip.
Would he mind sharing thoughts with someone? Especially if that someone was also like him.
He remembered the shaking shoulders of the seemingly though-as-rock girl.
"Would it hurt?" he thought to himself as his mind fought over whether to talk to the girl or not.
"Would it hurt?" he heard his thought echoed by Kazuki's transmitter.
----------
Two Beyblades, one blood red and one blue, clashed against each other as they winded around thorn hedges with their masters running behind them.
"Go Dranzer!" Kai commanded to his Beyblade and a fiery phoenix heeded his command.
Fiery arrows were fired at the opponent, who dodged skillfully.
"Spectrya!" the girl running beside Kai shouted. A black ball of light appeared out of the bit of the blood red Beyblade and hung there.
Kai looked at the ball of light and waited for it to move. Silence rang throughout the hedge maze.
Finally, sensing that the bit beast wasn't about to attack, Kai called upon Dranzer, "Flame Saber!"
The phoenix charged towards Spectrya, all the while attacking it with streams of flaming swords.
"Illusionist's Eye!" Changer countered and her bit beast took the shape of an eyeball.
Its purple iris shone a flow of light at Dranzer, stopping it in its tracks.
"Dranzer!" Kai shouted with a frown. He didn't like the sounds of that attack.
The eyeball started to change shape and a few seconds later, it had taken the shape of Dranzer.
"Attack him Spectrya!" Changer shouted, smirking to herself that at Kai's surprise.
"Black Dranzer," the boy thought with remorse, "But it's long gone now, I can't let it rule my fears."
"Counterattack Dranzer!" Kai shouted as his own bit beast came back to life, "Don't let that cheap copy faze you!"
The two phoenix' slammed against each other and a giant flash of light blinded both bladers.
The light died down and the two Beyblades could be seen lying beside each other.
Both had been knocked out.
Kai and Changer stared at their Beyblades, not believing that they could have tied.
"That was a worthwhile battle," Changer spoke up first.
"You were a worthy opponent," Kai responded and they looked at each other for a moment, mahogany eyes staring at turquoise ones.
Then Kai noticed a long cut on changer's left shoulder.
Probably caused by the flying thorns.
The rustling of bushes broke the silence.
As Kai turned around to look in the direction of the commotion, and Changer silently slipped away.
"Where..?" Kai asked as he turned around and saw no one there.
"Kai!" Max yelled as he ran up to the blue-haired Beyblader, "We've been looking for you!"
"Hey Kai," Ray greeted.
Tyson, Kenny, Robert, Oliver, Enrique and Johnny followed behind the Chinese beyblader.
"What happened here?" came a voice behind the Majestics. Jackie came into view looking at the mess the beybattle between Kai and Changer had caused with her lavender eyes.
"I just had a beybattle with the one you called Changer," Kai said directly to the Majestics.
"Who won?" Tyson asked.
"Neither of us," Kai said and started to walk back to the mansion.
Tyson looked confused.
Ray sighed and cleared up for him, "It was a draw Tyson,"
"Oh, because I thought a draw is when you both win, not when you both lose. Wait. Is that the same? Maybe not..Oh well, but I think you should have said it more clearly Kai, to avoid the others being confused you know?"
Kai rolled his eyes. As he passed Jackie, he saw that she had a familiar thorn cut on her arm.
"Where did you get that?" he asked suspiciously.
"What?" Jackie asked, then, looking down at the cut, she searched her brain for an answer, "I got it while I was coming here," she finally said, covering her cut with her hand, "The thorns are sharp you know,"
"It's a rather peculiar cut to get while walking through the maze," Kai observed.
"Well..Um.." Jackie sputtered as she failed to find an answer.
"Doesn't that suggest that she ran here?" Johnny said, coming to his sister's rescue.
Kai glared at Johnny but before he can say another word, Tyson's stomach growled.
"Can we go back to the mansion now?" Tyson whined and pointed to his stomach, "I'm hungry."
"But Tyson," Enrique said in a disbelieving voice, "You just had ninety plates of food for lunch!"
"Counting on that it's Tyson," Robert laughed, "nine hundred plates won't be enough."
Everyone laughed and started to walk back to the mansion.
Kai hesitated before following the others.
----------
Kazuki's dark form can be seen on her bed in her small dormitory. Lost in her own thoughts, she was startled as a familiar voice entered her mind.
"Do you still mind my thoughts?"
It was Tala.
"No, I suppose not," she replied in her mind hesitantly, "Why?"
There was a pause.
"It isn't much," Tala responded slowly, as if hiding something.
"Are you hiding something?" Kazuki asked.
It wasn't until a moment later that she noticed she was actually enjoying the company of Tala's voice.
"Nothing important," Tala replied shortly.
"Of course, I respect your privacy," Kazuki replied.
She sighed both inside and outside and flipped herself on her back and laid on her bed with her hands spread out.
"Tomorrow's training destination's changed," Tala said after the second round of silence, "I think the river's a much better training location,"
"Alright," Kazuki replied, shutting down her transmitter and receiver the best she knew how as she was still new to the concept.
"Too bad I don't know to shut off my visual receivers," Kazuki thought in the silence, "But I doubt that could shut away these nightmares I have each night"
And her words were proved right as the face of her beloved mother appeared in front of her unconscious vision.
--To be continued
----------
Note: I've uploaded some pictures onto my fanfic site at Check the gallery section for pictures!