"S-scuttle… scutt-tle…"
Tetsuya pinches his claws- er, fingers, together nervously as he mutters to himself. His throat is tight, and it makes his voice rise into almost giddy sounding pitch, although he's got nothing to be giddy about.
Taraba he had never cared for, had in fact hated quite thoroughly, but Tetsuya didn't fear him. He was simply a stain on his life, familiar in a comfortable sort of way without ever being in danger of becoming liked. A herald of the crossroad that made him this way.
So Tetsuya felt no grief over finding out he'd been taken by this new and improved Dark Nebula poser group, but that was not to say he felt nothing. Kyoya was a guy in a completely different league, so people that came after him should not even look at Tetsuya in theory. But Taraba. Taraba had a connection to him, scum that he was. It gave the niggling sense of being one claw away from getting pinched himself, and that just wouldn't do.
He shakes his head decisively, his hair whipping around like dry seaweed. No sir. One evil organization is definitely enough, thank you. He did his time at the Dark Nebula and almost died for it, he is staying in his shell this time. Only… given that he has no clue where these scuttlers may be, that may not work so well.
He stretches to fit behind a post and holds his breath, listening for anything out of the ordinary. There are the sounds of the ocean, crashing and spraying over the sand, and a couple of noisy birds, but nothing human. Which is great because as wildly talented as Tetsuya is, keeping still and quiet is very difficult. He deflates with a massive sigh.
Then shrieks when a bey hits the sand a foot away. "Pleasedon'tkillmeI'mjustapoordefencelesslittlecrabIcan'tgiveyouanythingLET ME GOOOO!"
"Oh shaddup, would you?"
At the familiar voice, Tetsuya freezes his... extremely threatening display of skill for hand-to-hand combat that could possibly be mistaken for flailing his arms in a panic, and turns to see that ugly blond afro swallowing the head of one of his least favorite people- bar at least twenty other much worse people. Tobio.
"Uuugh," Tetsuya groans crossly. "It's you again. What did you think you were doing?! Scaring crabs just minding their own business, that's the mark of a rude person!"
Tobio makes a noise like he's gargling cat spit. "Believe me, I'm no more thrilled to see you. But apparently all bladers have to use the buddy system right now, and I don't want to feel responsible because you were being an idiot."
"HA! You seem to forget that I'm a genius, crab!" He scissors his pinchers again for emphasis.
Tobio's face stays bland. "Right. Be sure to tell the kidnappers that as well. That'll keep you safe."
Tetsuya scoffs. "Yeeeeaah- well what are you doing alone then, crab? I don't see any-buddy crab following you around."
"That's because no one wants to hunt down your sorry hide with me. Besides, I'm careful."
"OH YEAH WELL-"
"What on earth is all this fuss about?"
They both jump and spin around to see Ryutaro snapping a fan shut.
Tobio recovers first, covering his startle with, "Huh, just you."
Tetsuya can't manage the same grace. "What the CRAB is up with the beach today?! Is everyone and their bey coming just to terrify me?! What kind of a sick scheme are you pulling, eh?!"
"Relax," Ryutaro says, tapping the tip of his fan to his lips, painted lilac per the norm. "I just came because the signs pointed me here. I was worried I'd be alone, very unwise to be so nowadays, but it seems to have worked out gracefully." A frown tugs those lips. "Still, not my first choice in company I must say."
"You're telling me…" Tobio mutters.
Registering that his simple scuttle across the beach will no longer be peaceful or enjoyable in any measure with the two of these parasites hanging off of him, Tetsuya groans and flops over at the waist. "Even the universe doth conspire~" With that out of his system, he straightens. "Alllright, well if you're bound and determined to follow me, it can't be helped."
He spins on a heel and marches back on his way. After a pause, he hears the other two following.
"Where are you going?" Tobio demands.
He frowns hard and squints at the other.
"What?" Tobio snaps.
Tetsuya puffs up his chest, balancing on his tiptoes for some height and, in his most authoritative tone, tells him, "I don't know, crab, this is sensitive information! To simply let slip about it to any common crustacean-!?" He relaxes. "No, I think not."
Tobio opens his mouth angrily- then pauses, rage evaporating from his expression to cool indifference instead. "Fine, whatever." To Tetsuya's surprise, he turns around. "Come on Ryutaro, I'm not wasting time here."
"-WAIT!' The shriek tumbles out of Tetsuya's mouth without his say, but he goes with it and reaches for the two nuisances frantically. "Don't you wanna know a-gaugh!- about the super-important-SECRET thing I'm doing?!" People always want to know super important secrets! Tetsuya thinks indignantly. This isn't fair!
"You just said you weren't going to say," Ryutaro reminds him. He's looking a bit irritated now too.
Better hurry and close this show out before they actually do leave.
"-I- I said I wasn't going to let it slip to a common crustacean. Obviously, that's how you see yourself then, buuuut if you really wanna know-"
Tobio finally faces him again. Excellent. "Fine, what?"
Tetsuya takes a breath to clear the excitement from his head because this is a very serious secret mission for the welfare of himself- which is something he always takes very seriously. He even crosses his arms to give his next words more weight. "As you may have heard, bladers are going missing!"
"I'm going to lose it," Tobio says faintly. Ryutaro shoots an arm out to grab onto his just as Tobio starts towards Tetsuya- who does not flinch. Or make an embarrassing squeaky gasping noise.
"Keep your claws to yourself! I'm getting there!" Tetsuya snaps when he recovers, tugging his vest straight with a bit of annoyance. He's beginning to regret not scuttling as soon as he caught this pair of snoops. "Bladers missing, and I'm not gonna be one of them! So, I happen to know some ex-face hunters hang around this part of the beach, and they happen to look up to me and my glorious wisdom. I thought I'd see what information I could pinch from them. There! I told you what you wanted to know. Now scram!"
Tobio and Ryutaro turn to each other. "Hmm. The face hunters…"
"Yes, I hear they do still keep close tabs on each other, all except Benkei and Kyoya at least. It would make sense that they may know something about this."
"Maybe the crab idiot is onto something here," Tobio admits.
Tetsuya's face twitches into a snarl. "HEY, I'M RIGHT HERE!"
They ignore his outburst but return to facing him again. "Alright, we'll come with you," Tobio tells him as if he'd been the one to ask them to follow.
Tetsuya growls, gritting his teeth, before crossing his arms self-importantly. "Well, I won't be waiting up on you, so you'd better-"
They both walk right past him. "Come on Tetsuya, we don't have till sunset," Ryutaro calls back.
No, this would have definitely been best without these awful stalking jerks.
/
Dropping immediately in the first bench he sees, Benkei holds his face and just breathes.
Today he's going to see Kyoya. As soon as he gets from here to Gingka's house in fact. The only problem is: he keeps winding himself up and having to stop.
"I have to be calm, cool as a cucumber, ice cream in an igloo cool!" He insists aloud to himself. "I can't freak out when I see him, no matter how much I want to!"
More likely, however, is that he won't even catch a glimpse of him. Gingka had already tried having some people come over to the apartment, including Madoka and Kenta, but Kyoya had just shut himself up in his room the whole time. From the time Benkei had known him, he can list two different types of Kyoya isolating himself- one was the normal kind where he'd go off alone for whatever important reasons he had. Sometimes they were training or traveling, and sometimes they were more like Kyoya wanted to think about things by himself. Benkei can appreciate those.
But then there was the type that disbanded the Facehunters without a thought and put Benkei's arm in a cast when he tried to talk to Kyoya. Howling for destruction and superiority with razor teeth grins like "It was horrible," had turned him into a shell of a person. It's the type Beneki had forgiven because Kyoya changed and found a path without hurting people, forgotten because that wasn't who Kyoya was anymore. But can Benkei really say he knows Kyoya right now?
This time will be different. It has to be. Softer, he amends what he said, "And if… if Kyoya doesn't want to see me, that's fine. That'll be fine too… But I can't let him be alone." It's what friends did for each other.
When he feels steadier again, Benkei hoists himself to his feet and starts off again, his expression that of fierce determination. He'll do whatever it takes to help Kyoya, no matter how long it takes.
It isn't until he's knocking on Gingka's door- he hopes it's Gingka's door anyways- that the nerves pierce his wall of ferocity. Maybe he shouldn't have today, maybe it would be better to do this somewhere else or, maybe he should have called ahead a second time just in case something happened in the last twenty minutes. It's too late for any of that when the redhead prodigy of the beyblade world opens the door.
"Hey, Benkei. It's good to see you." He steps away to let Benkei come in. Seeing that the apartment is just as peaceful inside as out is a relief to his, admittedly irrational, concerns. "So, how are you, buddy?" Gingka asks, shutting the door behind him.
"I'm fine. I've been busy helping Demure and Nile figure out where they're going to stay. They don't want to leave while… um, right now."
"Oh… yeah."
They go to the living room and sit down, Gingka crisscrossing like it's habit, although Benkei can't recall him doing it anywhere besides grass.
"So, how is that going?" Gingka continues.
Benkei groans. "You'd think I would know more about it! It's just frustrating!"
"Ugh, tell me about it," Gingka sympathizes enthusiastically. "I had to deal with that all the time while I was traveling around. Sleeping rough just ended up being easier."
The sound of footsteps makes Benkei look up and stop. Through the doorway in the dining room, he can see Kyoya standing rigidly at the table, gripping a chair and looking almost as if he isn't sure what to do. To Benkei's confusion, he's wearing a normal long sleeve green shirt- no cut-offs or midriffs- which for Kyoya is as normal as someone else walking around in a unicorn onesie.
Gingka catches his eye, expression suddenly alert. He mouths something like, "Is he out?"
"Yeah," Benkei mouths back nodding tightly.
Barely holding himself from a celebration, Gingka fist pumps. "He hasn't done this yet with anyone that's come over!" He exclaims in a whisper.
To be trusted so much by Kyoya…! Benkei screws his face to hold back the explosion of emotion and budding tears to cheer silently as well. Kyoya buddy! I'll do my best to be worthy of your trust!
When they manage to contain themselves, Gingka continues, "Man, with all this commotion I haven't heard of any new tournaments, I hope I'm not missing anything."
"Nah, all the tournaments are all canceled," Benkei tells him. "Even if they weren't I don't think anyone wants to go right now."
"Huh?!"
"No one wants to be caught as a blader! Even a few people who aren't bladers have been staying in just in case. It's weird to see hardly anyone walking around, except businessman and gangs. Like a ghost town."
The light in his expression darkens, and Benkei remembers that this whole situation must be pervading every bit of Gingka's life right now. With Ryo Hagane always busy with the case, and Kyoya here, Gingka can't even leave the apartment hardly at all anymore when he used to wander like a leaf in the wind.
"It isn't fair…" Gingka mutters, the negativity like acid unexpected from his mouth, understandable though it might be. Benkei looks for something to say, he isn't sure what, but Gingka continues, "Them hurting people like this, taking away what helps bladers bond-it's almost as if they're trying to destroy Beyblade!" He squeezes a fist tight. "I want more than anything to go after them and take them down! But… it wouldn't be right to just leave Kyoya alone…" The tension bleeds away and Gingka slumps. "I wouldn't know where to go either."
He hates to see so much disheartenment in anyone's face, it burns fiercely in his chest until he surges forward. "Grrgh! When we finally do know we'll take all of them down! Just you wait! You can count on me to back you up, Gingka, and they'll pay for every way they've hurt bladers!"
Gingka blinks, and the smile returns to his face. "Yeah, yeah we will!"
Neither notices the footsteps fading out of the dining room.
/
"Huh…" Tsubasa frowns thoughtfully at the page. A light knocking gets his attention to where Hikaru is standing in the door, her knuckles still hovering above the siding. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get so wrapped up here," Tsubasa tells her.
He moves to put her papers back where she had them before she objects, "Oh no, it's fine Tsubasa. I wasn't doing anything important with them." She tucks away a strand of hair with some irritation as she adds, "Just thought with the director on as much coffee as he is now it'd be best if they were sorted. Why, have you found something?"
When he turns back to the page in hand with a look, Hikaru moves to where he's almost sitting on her desk to peer at it as well. To her he begins, "I went back to that crime scene, the most recent one, to see if I could find anything. And while there wasn't much of interest, I did notice one thing." He pulls out a phone and flips to a photo of graffiti. He points a finger to something in the image. "See right there?"
His eyes watch her closely as she peers at it. "French," She remarks.
"Wow, you got that quick," he mutters good-naturedly and she huffs a laugh before Tsubasa brings the paper to her face. "Now, look here," he tells her, going solemn again.
It's a report on a few of the ties the company uncovered as a front to kidnapping had to other companies. The one a couple lines down was notably French-based. "You think it's connected," Hikaru guesses.
Tsubasa's eyes might be able to cut glass if he tried. "I know it's a longshot," He says. "But I believe it's a coincidence that can't be overlooked, not when we're short on leads."
"Yeah," Hikaru hands him back the report. "You don't need to convince me. I think it makes sense. The problem is you'll need to go to France and figure that out… you don't even have anyone that'll make the trip with you, do you?" She realizes aloud.
"I'll be fine."
She gives him a sharp look of her own until he drops that reassuring smile he uses to fool Gingka and the others-like he did during the world competition while he was being eaten up by L-Drago's final curse. No, she isn't buying that one at all. "Right, and if you just stroll into these monster's base and they don't accept whatever lame story you try to pass then what, genius?"
Tsubasa sighs, "I'm not planning on strolling in, not this time. I can't afford to be recognized as a blader."
"Obviously not." Hikaru crosses her arms. "So what is your plan?"
Tsubasa hums consideringly, "Well, I haven't even gotten enough information on them yet, I don't plan on even leaving Japan before I have all I can find out here. There's no need to jump into anything. And because I'm staying," he puts on that irritating smile again, now touched with humor, "There's no reason to worry about my crazy schemes, alright Hikaru?"
The disbelieving scoff she lets out only make his smile more sincere, so she rolls her eyes instead. "I'm just concerned about you breaking Mr. Hagane with stress. Make sure he doesn't have to fly you off any more rooftops."
"Wait, how did you know-"
Hikaru doesn't wait for him to finish before swinging the door shut behind her.
So, I actually finished this months ago.
But I had someone close to me pass away, and since then nothing's been the same. I hope I can keep updating, but if I fall off here you know why at least.
Now, to clarify something super quick, if I put potentially triggering thing in here, I am going to try and leave warnings. I might not be perfect at doing it, I'm scatterbrained, but I'm gonna try. If there's something you want me to warn about in the future you might want to let me know. I'm still not sure how graphic I'll be making Kyoya's trauma, but I plan on touching on it.
Thank you guys for commenting. With the amount of rewriting and hiatuses this thing has taken I'm shocked sometimes that it still has followers... xD But it makes me so happy.
