Yello! Idol here with the last update for this story for the summer (probably). WHOOO!
I can't wait for school. I will be busy, but meeting all the teachers and old friends is fun!
Anyway, my brother wolfydude23 has been helping me with this story so far, but my cousin GodDraco163 has decided to pitch in as well! Now I can tell you that the plot will throw you in for a loop later on, so stay tuned.
Enjoy the chapter! Review and leave your thoughts (positively, don't use language that brings me down.) Criticism is MUCH appreciated!
- Idol
"Reiji!" Yuya stormed to the taller male who was currently watching the other Bladers battle. Reiji glanced at Yuya and then promptly ignored him. Yuya gritted his teeth and took another step forward. "Look at me!"
Reiji sighed and lazily gazed at Yuya. "What do you want?"
"A battle!"
Reiji sighed as he closed his eyes. "Why so suddenly?"
"I need to!"
"Why?"
"Because!" Reiji opened his eyes at the waver in Yuya's voice. Yuya was trembling a bit, though it was barely noticeable. "I need to understand things!"
Reiji stared at Yuya for a few seconds and then got off the wall. "Alright, fine. Meet me here tomorrow, sundown." Then he walked away.
Yuya clenched his fist, enraged at Reiji's retreating form. "How can he be so nonchalant…"
"Yuya!" Valt called. After a moment, when Yuya didn't respond, Valt came over. "Something happen? Why're you shaking?"
Yuya let out a light, breathy laugh. "Oh, nothing. It's just that I'm excited about sundown, that's all."
Valt took a step back in surprise and gasped. Yuya's red eyes were glowing, and his mouth, instead of smiling, was just relaxed and open like he was watching something. "Y-Yuya?"
The glow abruptly cut off as Yuya turned to Valt again. "Yeah? What's up?"
Valt shook his head frantically. "N-nothing! I'd better get back to practice with Kumicho!" And he scampered off.
Yuya just shook his head and walked out of the room. But once he closed the door behind him he collapsed on the wall, holding his head. Just his luck, right after he challenged Akaba Reiji to a battle, he had to get a vision of Shu. And Valt was there with Yuya when it happened as well. Valt already suspected him of hiding something.
He put a hand to his face only for it to come off sweaty. He took a deep breath, and with some effort, stood up to walk back to his dorm room and get some rest.
Shu...where are you?
Shu gasped in pain as he tried to move his head. Shadow had complete control now. There was nothing Shu could do, what with the knives sticking out from him and everything.
Shadow chuckled from a few feet ahead. "Had enough already?"
Shu painfully shook his head. "I've suffered worse…"
"...You do know that one stab will be all it takes to kill you at this point, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't care."
Shadow faced Shu, red eyes glinting in whatever light there was in Shu's mind at the time. "I suggest you just go along with what I want from you. You can't keep hiding your power forever."
"I'll get out of here soon," Shu sighed as he closed his eyes to rest.
Shadow laughed maniacally at this ridiculous statement. "How would you manage to do that?"
Shu just mumbled out a reply. "I believe in my friends." He smiled.
"Huh?" Shadow looked at Shu as incredulously as he could. Shu didn't move. He was sleeping with that angelic smile on his face that made Shadow want to hurl. Shadow turned away and resumed making Shu's body move.
"Who needs friends anyway? All they ever do is betray you…"
Yuya sat on his bed, pondering his dreams from previous nights and the one from today. He remembered Shu fighting for control of his body against Shadow, believing that his friends will help. Yuya was really creeped out. Shu might be in real trouble.
Nah, Valt is right. Shu is probably training hard at the Raging Bulls and is just fine. After all, Shu is the strongest blader that I know of, and Valt knows him really well, Yuya thought to himself.
Plus, he needed to go to sleep so he could get as much energy as possible for the battle against Reiji. He knew that Reiji was stronger than him, so he needed time to warm up. Yuya laid down and was out like a light as soon as his head touched the pillow.
"A day before the match between us and Sunbat...what is the boy thinking!?" Sasha groaned as she watched Yuya and Reiji get into position. "Reiji is basically on the same level as Free, and Yuya lost to him already!"
"I don't get it either, but it's what Yuya wants to do," Valt replied, looking at Yuya's stance.
"I mean, you never know what'll happen in a battle, so…" Kumicho tried consoling himself, but his face was proof enough that he was worried.
Yuya was stretching near the BeyStadium. On the other side, Reiji was assembling his launcher. The competitors were surrounded by the Bladers of BC Sol, who were watching with interest.
"I have no idea of what purpose you challenged me to a battle for. What I do know is that you are going to lose horrendously," Reiji calmly stated as he brought out his Bey. "Meet Doom Armageddon!"
Interesting, Yuya thought to himself. The Bey was literally just a pentagon, with brown coloring on the edges making it look like there were leather shields. In the middle there was a light-purple face with ominous scarlet eyes. The disk was Outer, which was known for its stamina, and the driver was Orbit. The stamina from the other two parts was going to be ruined by the shape of Armageddon's layer; it was a pentagon, so it would be unbalanced. A Bey like this was what Reiji was boasting about? This was going to be easy.
"Well, Pendulum Odd-Eyes is gonna crush you!" Yuya snapped his Bey onto his launcher. Reiji did the same.
"3...2...1...LET IT RIP!"
"What?" While in the air, Doom Armageddon had changed. Now a spike protruded from each of the vertices of the pentagon. The spikes were huge and curved outward. They would provide protection and attack power. Yuya silently cursed to himself. He hadn't thought about the fact that Reiji was a clever man and most likely had some sort of a secret plan behind his Bey's appearance.
Odd-Eyes immediately took the center. Yuya had taken some precautions if you could call sneaking into Trad's office with Kumicho "precautions". Kumicho found a new launcher and Yuya had found a new Driver called Dimension. Trad was pretty angry but didn't mind in the end. Dimension had a feature where the driver could be 3 different lengths, allowing for attack, defense, and stamina settings. Odd-Eyes worked really well with it. Currently, it was in the defense length. Yuya had figured that if Odd-Eyes could take the center early on, it would be a blow to Armageddon who had low stamina, to begin with.
It wouldn't really be much help now.
Doom Armageddon went immediately for the attack. Typical Reiji. Calculating his opponent's strategy perfectly before the battle. "I got this in the bag,'' said Yuya confidently, "GO ODD-EYES! Spiral Flame Stronghold!"
Yuya had come up with the move the day before the battle. Flames shot out of Odd-Eyes' two horns, and as the Bey spun, the blaze grew to form a wall protecting Odd-Eyes.
"Oh?" Reiji smirked as Doom Armageddon made its way towards Odd-Eyes. "Did you think it would be that easy?"
"What do you mean?" Yuya watched as Armageddon slammed into Odd-Eyes, breaking through the fire. A spike hit Odd-Eyes' horn. Yuya gasped; the spike sprung inwards on contact like Armageddon was softening its own attack. However, the blade forced itself back out, launching both Beys backward. Armageddon's blade softened its impact against the wall, but Odd-Eyes burst.
"Burst Finish for Reiji! Score 2-0!" The ref called.
"Is that all you've got?" Reiji taunted.
No response.
"Yuya?"
Odd-Eyes flew towards the wall. Yuya couldn't believe that Reiji had broken through his new move so easily. Well, that was expected of Reiji.
Wait… On Odd-Eyes… was that a crack?
Yuya closed his eyes. An image of Shu's Bey breaking flashed before his eyes. Suddenly, a searing pain split through his head.
Yuya…
Yuya's eyes flew open, headache forgotten, as he turned around. However, Yuya's eyes just took in the unsurprised faces of his friends. No one was moving. Everything looked like someone painted the setting on a canvas in a monochrome palette. Yuya turned to the BeyStadium, but Odd-Eyes was suspended in midair.
The world suddenly spun and Yuya had to close his eyes from the dizziness.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a very familiar albino male who Yuya had been dreaming about for some time now staring at the floor.
Shu looked up, skin the color of old parchment, black bags under his eyes. His hair was no longer covering an eye, revealing both. Blood ran from his scar, which was split open. The damaged eye was closed from the pain. The other eye, instead of being crimson, was black, even to the whites. Yuya couldn't make out the pupil in that eye. Black cracks ran from that eye over his face. Overall, he looked like he just walked out of a horror movie.
This is what you've done to me.
"What?" Yuya tried reaching out to Shu, but Shu dissipated into the air. In place, a dark silhouette came to stand. A dark aura was flowing out of the figure. Yuya growled. "Shadow. Where is Shu?"
Shadow just stood there, arms crossed, shaking his head.
I wouldn't be worried about him right now. You've got WAY bigger problems than worrying about a dead friend.
"What do you mean, 'dead friend'?"
Shadow laughed hysterically. He opened his mouth to respond. However, instead of the chilling voice, Yuya had heard before, Valt's voice came through.
"YUYA!"
Suddenly the world took color and Yuya felt a force push him to the ground. He closed his eyes in pain as a headache overtook him.
"Yuya, wake up! YUUUYAAAA!"
"Damn it! SHADOW!" Yuya screamed.
"Yep, he lost his marbles."
"I wonder what happened."
"Isn't it obvious Free? He had a mental breakdown!"
Now Yuya could discern the voices. He blearily opened his eyes to see a very worried Valt staring at him from WAY too close. Yuya cringed and pushed him back.
"Personal space exists, Valt."
"You're okay!" Valt started sobbing as he threw his arms around Yuya, ignoring his previous comment.
"I wouldn't say OKAY. Maybe extremely upset at the crack in my Bey." Yuya laughed shakily as everyone gasped. "Speaking of which, did I burst?"
"NOOOOOOO, Yuya, you won the World League!" Sasha groaned sarcastically. "Maybe if you'd have been paying more ATTENTION instead of daydreaming, maybe you could have seen Reiji burst you ON THE FIRST HIT! "
"I don't know if you'd call Yuya's horrible nightmare, 'daydreaming', but whatever sinks your boat." Valt shrugged.
"The term is 'whatever FLOATS your boat, you dolts." With that, Sasha stormed out.
Everyone went their separate ways, all except for Free, who just stood in the corner watching everyone. Yuya sighed, looking at Sasha's teal jacket. "Geez, what's her problem?"
"Better question: What's YOUR problem?" Kumicho retorted, glaring at Yuya while Valt handed Yuya the pieces of Odd-Eyes. "Reiji literally called the match his win because you were out for so long!"
"Huh?"
"You literally fainted and started whispering random words. So you answer my question and then I'll answer you."
"Okay." Yuya took a deep breath and looked at the ground, wondering if he really should just spill the beans.
"We're your friends," Valt said softly. "You can tell us anything if there is any problem. That's what friends are for."
"Yeah, thanks," Yuya blinked a few times, bracing himself. He would tell part of the truth. That can't really be called lying, can it? "It's just that when I saw the crack, I had a flashback to Shu's Bey breaking against Lui, and I then had a nightmare about Odd-Eyes breaking in the same way."
Everyone went silent. The silence stayed for a while, until...
"Guys!" Everyone turned their heads to see who broke the quiet. It was Wakiya, who was running at them with a strange urgency. "Guys, you won't believe what I just found out!"
"One sec, Wakiya. Yuya was just about to tell us something," Kumicho groaned.
"This is WAY more important!"
"Alright," Yuya consented. "What happened?"
"Shu is missing!"