Kyoya: DragonFang2011 does not own Metal Fight Beyblade or any of the characters! And I found this chapter to be kind of confusing and random... it's divided into three different sections.
Me: Well, I'm both, so...
Gingka: Be glad that Ryuga hasn't read this yet...
Gingka embraced Kyoya and Ryuga, hot tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. "Come back safe, 'kay?" he said, his voice muffled in Ryuga's shirt. "I... I'll take you out to this new food joint I know 'round here. And you won't have to spend anything... and... and..."
"You'd better stick to your word," Kyoya said, his voice seeming a little distant. He ruffled Gingka's hair affectionately.
Gingka stepped back, studying his friends' faces in the dark courtyard lit only by a single lantern and the sliver of new moon, trying to be quiet—they had orders not to wake anyone up. Why the mission was so secret, he didn't know. But he crossed his arms and thought of Pegasus in the woods, and how he'd have a lot to tell him.
"Well, see you in a few days, guys," Gingka breathed, still feeling the disappointment of not being able to accompany them on their journey.
"Nine days, tops," Kyoya promised, and Gingka hoped that he would keep it. "The border's the same distance away from here as Sirius is from Ensis, and we're traveling on horseback, so don't expect us to be away for too long."
"If we hadn't taken all those stupid detours, we would've gotten here from Ensis a week instead of three," Ryuga muttered.
Kyoya rolled his eyes at Ryuga's remark.
Gingka took off the bag he'd been carrying, and handed it to Kyoya. "I snuck some of Madoka's pastries from the kitchen," he said, trying not to tear open the bag and gobble up the snacks. "Thought she'd want you to have 'em, if she knew you were going..."
They hadn't been allowed to say goodbye to the others, and Gingka could tell how it was a major blow to Ryuga and Kyoya's confidence. He himself was praying to the gods that his two friends would make it back alive, because even though the two often acted like children whenever they lost their tempers, no one could have made it to Sirius.
Tsubasa was patiently waiting for them in the stables, his white stallion saddled and ready. An eagle was perched on his shoulder—the prince had already informed them that its name was Aquila. "Let's get going, you two," he said. "We have a long journey ahead of us."
Gingka watched, panic and concern building in his chest as he watched Ryuga mount a chestnut horse, which seemed a little twitchy. However, it seemed that it was Kyoya's steed that had a problem with its rider. It was snorting and backing away from him.
"Tch. Probably can smell the dead people on you." Ryuga smirked. Gingka realized that he was referring to the prophecy's line about the whisperer of the dead. He wondered if Kyoyacould talk to the dead, then saw the green-haired teen's frosty blue glare and decided that now wasn't the time to ask.
"Oh, yeah?" Kyoya countered. "What about you, half-blood?"
Ryuga turned away without even a sneer, and Gingka could tell that Kyoya's words had upset him.
In an attempt to break the thin layer of ice that had been built between the two teens, Tsubasa cleared his throat. "Just try to get on the horse, Kyoya," he said, "and remember what you've been taught about riding them."
Kyoya nodded, stuffed the bag of pastries into one of the saddlebags, and managed to keep the horse still enough for him to unsteadily mount it.
Tsubasa flicked the reins and his horse trotted out of the stables and into the courtyard, hooves clop-clop-clopping on the smooth stone ground. Kyoya and Ryuga's horses followed, nickering and snorting as their more inexperienced riders tried to steer them in the right direction.
Gingka watched as they passed through the opened side gate and quickly ran to close it behind their departing mounts. It swung closed, the old metal hinges creating the softest squeaking sound as it did. He pushed the bolt in.
When Gingka looked up through the thin bars, the three horses and their riders were gone.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
"You've obviously gotten the hang of Levitation," Ryo said.
Gingka was levitating a large oak table, and he found it quite difficult—he felt the heavy weight of the item on his mind, almost as if he were manually lifting it. He pushed back on the weight and sighed with relief as it slowly began to wane. "Yeah," he replied carefully. "This is easy—"
The table fell to the ground, narrowly missing Gingka's foot.
"Oops." Ryo looked amused.
"You talked to me on purpose!" Gingka accused.
"I was assessing you to see if you were ready to move onto levitating multiple larger objects, but it seems like you aren't." His father clicked his tongue and moved behind Gingka to adjust his stance, but for once, he seemed at loss of what to do.
Gingka fidgeted uncomfortably and turned his head to the side.
Ryo stepped back. An awkward silence settled between them, and once again, Gingka was reminded of the large rift between himself and his father—more than a decade long, actually—and how this came between their father-son relationship.
Finally, Ryo spoke. "Just... just move your feet a little further apart, Gingka—yes, that's it. Now let's try again."
"Dimoveo!" The three books rose again.
Suddenly, a dark brown falcon flew through the window and landed on the floor, making Gingka drop the books. "Ugh—stupid bird!"
The falcon screeched at him, then started to grow taller, its feathers shrinking and folding together, getting paler—human skin, clothes, and accessories. Its wings turned into arms, the tips dividing themselves and elongating into slender fingers. Eyes shifting to the front of the head. Dark hair springing out of the scalp.
In two seconds, a boy—probably no older than Ryuga—was standing in front of Gingka, eyeing him curiously. He had dark blue hair and pale skin and was wearing face paint, a short white tunic decorated with blue ocean waves, loose navy blue pants, and worn brown sandals.
"Ryutaro!" Ryo looked surprised. "What are you doing here?"
The boy—who apparently went by the name Ryutaro—shrugged. "I heard you were training a new young wizard while I was away," he said. "So I wrapped up my own training and went back here to see how he's doing." He glared at Gingka. "I don't appreciate being called stupid, by the way."
The redhead shrank back.
"This is my... son... Gingka," Ryo said. "Gingka, this is my other apprentice Ryutaro Fukami. I believe he just finished his Altering training."
"Altering?" Gingka exclaimed. "Wow! I'm only at Levitation!"
"So you're Sensei Ryuusei's son?" Ryutaro tilted his head. "Funny—he's never mentioned having one."
Ryo laughed. "You'll figure it out eventually, Ryutaro," he said, patting the other boy's back. Gingka tried to conceal it, but his heart clenched—he envied the closeness that his father and his apprentice had, and they probably didn't even share the same blood.
"Ryuusei?" Gingka questioned.
His father smiled. "Ryo is my nickname. Formally, I am referred to as Ryuusei."
"Should I start calling you Sensei, too?" Gingka asked dryly. "Whatever that means..."
"If you'd like," Ryo said. "But that would feel quite strange. Oh, Sensei is what students usually call their teachers in Japanese, out of respect."
"Why does Gaelleon have to have so many languages?" Gingka grumbled.
Ryutaro smiled. "The most commonly used is English, but before the different cultures were united, people who lived here used to speak all kinds of languages—Japanese, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and many more than I can count on my fingers."
"Do you speak anything besides English?" Gingka asked.
"Not really," Ryutaro admitted. "All those languages... they kind of started to fade away... a long time ago."
"That's sad," Gingka said.
Ryo hummed. "However, some towns were divided into different groups, usually depending on their cultures. Ensis' community is mainly made up of people of Japanese roots. Calor is mainly Portuguese, with a bit of English or American here and there. Mienora's Irish. Goren is Chinese."
"Sounds kind of racist."
"Oh, son..." Ryo patted his head in amusement.
Ryutaro's face broke out in a grin and he opened a fan in front of his chest. "I can tell that you've got a strong, kind heart, Gingka," he commented, waving his fan. "It's a good quality to have, especially during these hard times. I hope you put it to good use."
Gingka shrugged, turning red at the praise.
ΩΩΩΩΩ
"So let me get this straight," Pegasus said. "You want me to jump off this ledge?"
Gingka nodded. "Yes. I want you to learn how to fly in higher elevations."
"No way." The winged horse snorted in contempt and backed away from the edge of the cliff, which probably wasn't more than forty feet above the ground. "I'm not going to do it. Do you know how long it took me to make my mane and tail look this good?"
"I don't care about your stupid hair!" Gingka snapped. "Just go, or I'll force you off."
"Oh, really?" Pegasus snorted. "I'd like to see you try, short-stack—"
"Dimoveo." Gingka waved his wand at the Pegasus. Immediately, the acrophobic horse started to float. "Hey! Put me down, you insolent twit!" he whinnied. "Put me down, I say! This isn't fair!" He kicked his hooves and tossed his head as Gingka moved him closer to the edge.
"Bye." Gingka put his wand down.
Pegasus let out a high-pitched shriek as Gingka's magic slacked around him and he fell downwards, towards the ground. He spread open his large, feathered wings just before he hit the treetops, and rocketed upwards, back towards the ledge.
Gingka clapped his hands together as Pegasus stumbled to a clumsy stop in front of him. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"
Suddenly, a blur of red fabric streaked out of the trees behind him. Gingka yelped, caught off guard, and was pushed backwards into Pegasus' hard flank. The winged horse whinnied in panic and jumped off the cliff. Gingka quickly whipped out the knife he kept in his boot and managed to parry the incoming attacker's blade, only to be pushed to the ground.
"That was unfair, Hikaru!" Gingka exclaimed, panting heavily. "You could've killed me!"
"And me!" Pegasus added huffily, landing back on the ground. He started preening himself.
She had grown into a strong young woman, he'd noticed. She seemed to have discarded her noblewoman ways and had adopted less sophisticated habits—such as wearing tunics, pants, and boots instead of dresses and petticoats—over the course of their journey, and Gingka knew that she had managed to surpass him quickly in combat.
Hikaru had taken it upon herself to spar with Gingka everyday, taking him by surprise every time. Gingka often thought that it was her way of letting her frustration out—after all, the group had practically disbanded, and they were left at the castle whilst the others went off to war, doing who-knows-what, risking their lives for the benefit of a few thousand strangers.
"Well," Hikaru said, blowing a strand of blue hair out of one of her violet eyes. "You two looked pretty scared, and I guess that was sort of worth it." She twirled her sword in her hands and sheathed it. "I don't know why I chose to do this with you," she muttered, as if to herself. "Kenta's a much tougher opponent..."
"I was not scared!"
"Yes, you were."
"Let's make a rule then—no attacking someone when they're standing next to a cliff!"
"Oh, suck it up, Magic Boy," she said teasingly. "You're just mad that I beat you."
"You did not beat me!"
Pegasus looked up from his grooming, his azure eyes sparking with contempt. "And he barely deserves the name 'Magic Boy'—he's only at Levitation... hmph!" He tossed his head vehemently. "Can't even learn Healing yet, and Healing's one of the easiest types of magic..."
"It is not!" Gingka scoffed. "The difficulty of the magic depends on the magician's natural abilities and the power of his or her wand!"
"And your wand has fairy dandruff in it."
"Fairy dandruff?" Hikaru drew back in disgust.
"That's what Ryo—uh, I mean my dad—told me," Gingka said.
She cleared her throat. "How'd he even get fairy dandruff? Aren't fairies... like, really small and hard to find, let alone catch?" She tapped her chin. "Or, at least, that's what I've read in the castle library. That place's practically a treasure cove of knowledge. I've read a few books about prophecies—"
"Do you miss them?"
Hikaru was silent for a couple of heartbeats, taken by surprise at the very sudden change of subject. "Miss who?" she asked, trying to act like she didn't know what he was talking about, even though it was all too obvious that she did.
Gingka shrugged.
Pegasus sighed rudely and made himself comfortable on the ground, delicately folding his wings over his flanks. "Here we go again," he said, snorting, "with all your stupid drama. It was so funny at first... now it's just irritating."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Gingka said sarcastically, feigning sincerity. "I didn't realize that we've wandered away from the most important of all conversation topics—Pegasus' life! Please, Pegasus, go ahead. What's up? Enlighten us."
"Thank you!"
Gingka rolled his eyes at Pegasus and turned back to Hikaru. "You haven't seen them in a while, huh?"
Hikaru nodded. "I miss Ryuga..."
At Gingka's raised eyebrow, she quickly added, "And Kyoya, Benkei, Bao, and Aguma, of course."
"Yeah..." Gingka sighed. "Especially since we've just reunited. Now they've gone again."
"Just reunited?"
Gingka realized his blunder—that Hikaru didn't know about the quest. "I mean, it seems like yesterday when Kyoya was bossing us around... Dan and Reiki showing up in Goren... Yu joining the group... Aguma breaking up the fight between Bao and Ryuga..." A wave of nostalgia washed over him.
Hikaru seemed to have forgotten the slip-up. "... Ryuga helping to tell that story about Ryuu Koutei... and telling me about fireweed..."
Gingka smirked at Hikaru, eager to take advantage of the situation. "Hikaru Hasama sneaking a peek at Ryuga Kishatu while he was taking a bath..."
Pegasus burst out in his own version of a laugh. "Hikaru's a pervert!"
"I was not sneaking a peek!" The blue-haired girl was blushing and avoiding his gaze. "I was refilling the canteens, and he just happened to be buck-naked in the water right in front of me and how in the name of magic did you know that?"
"You ran into the camp with the canteens empty and your face all red and guilty, like it is now," Gingka said. "Two minutes later, Ryuga came in and said that he felt like someone was watching him while he was bathing. Hikaru, you'd have to be very stupid to not think that there was some connection."
"Well, I saw more of him than what I was comfortable with... Did you know that there's a birthmark on his ass that's shaped like a piece of macaroni?"
"The Sodos' macaroni? The one covered with the suspicious 'cheese' that Benkei said had glued his mouth shut for at least three days?"
"What other macaroni would I be talking about?"
"Good point... I've gotta go. It's past noon—my dad's probably waiting for me now."
Me: So? What did you think? *elbows Hikaru*
Hikaru: I have nothing to say to you! *leaves*
Me: *pouts*
Ryuga: You envision me with a macaroni-shaped birthmark on my butt?
Me: Yes. Left cheek. About an inch long and a centimeter wide. Three and a half inches away from the crack. Two inches below the spine. A couple of shades darker than your skin tone, and a bit faded around the edges.
Ryuga: The fact that you seem to have thought about this before creeps me out in ways I've never been creeped out before.
Me: *perv face* Oh, I've thought about it before, Ryuga... I've thought about it before... lots... *is shot* ... *annoyed* ... Do you really think that a suction-cup-tipped arrow is going to kill me?
Ryuga: Damn it.
Me: *grins* Dat ass...