I'm back! XD And for once, I actually managed to get three chapters written for three separate stories, so 'Aftermath of Nemesis,' the new Stormflight, and this story are all getting updates! Enjoy!
Gingka: Galaxy doesn't own MFB, only her OCs.
Me: Thanks to Angel, owner of Destiny Heart; CutieAngel99 (Hey, there's two Angels! XD) owner of Dennis Rawiel Haas; my sister Kaidra, owner of Maristela Kishatu; and Shadowssj12, owner of Jonah Cross. Also, since I see I forgot to thank the owners of the African team OCs, thank you also to: PineScar, owner of 'Keo' Nero Kizuato; SkylarkOfTheMoon, owner of Caroline Pierce; and a special tribute thanks to Flame, owner of Blake and Morgana Stone. Anyway, enjoy this chapter of 'Hikou Rising!'
"Here we are! Europe already!" Maru exclaimed as the group got off their train.
"What country are we in?" Ren asked.
"I have no idea." Maru replied, blushing in embarrassment.
"We're in Italy." Arashi said.
"Huh? How do you know that? I can't read any of these signs!" Isamu exclaimed, looking around.
"You're kidding me, right?" Arashi sweatdropped and pointed at a large building in the distance.
The rest of the team turned around and sweatdropped in embarrassment.
"Oh, I guess that the Roman Coliseum would be a pretty good indicator, huh?" Ren laughed awkwardly.
"How did we miss that?" Shinobu wondered.
Arashi shrugged. "You were facing the other way. Now, where's our hotel?" the bluenette turned to a map nearby, examining it and trying to make sense out of the language and street names.
"The street name should be the same on our instructions as on the map, right?" Isamu said.
"Instructions? What instructions?" Arashi raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you had them!" Ren exclaimed.
"Guys, calm down! I have them right here!" Maru exclaimed. "And i have a GPS, so we don't need that map."
"You won't be needing your GPS either." A voice said from behind the group.
Galaxy Flame whirled, and found themselves facing an older man, whose clothing clearly marked him as a butler for some well-to-do family.
"Who are you?" Arashi asked suspiciously.
"I am the butler for the distinguished Konzern family. I have orders to take you directly to the Konzern mansion, where you will be staying for the duration of your time here in Italy."
"Konzern?" Ren, Shinobu, and Isamu looked confused, but Arashi relaxed in recognition as Maru gave a surprised exclamation:
"Konzern! That's one of the words on our directions!" Maru exclaimed.
"Yes, Master Julian had said that you would have the address to his home. Please, step into the car, and we'll be on our way." the butler said, opening the door.
Ren and Maru quickly climbed into the plush seats of the limousine, with Isamu and Shinobu soon following. Arashi examined the coat of arms on the door for a few seconds before climbing in as well, and they drove off.
After nearly an hour of driving through the beautiful Italian countryside, the group arrived at a large mansion, surrounded by the trees of a dense forest, and clearly well-kept.
"Whoa! That's huge!" Maru exclaimed, being the first to spot it.
"It is the Konzern Estate, and has been in the family for generations." the butler said as he pulled into the driveway, where the car was met by a group of maids led by a young woman with light blue hair.
"Welcome to the Konzern Family Estate. I am Sophie, former member of Team Excalibur. The maids will take you to your rooms so that you can refresh yourselves from your journey, and then they will escort you to the verandah in the back garden, where you will meet your opponents for the next round and the rest of Team Excalibur." Sophie introduced herself as the maids took Galaxy Flame's luggage.
"It is an honor to meet you, Miss Sophie." Shinobu said, bowing slightly.
"Yeah! Nice to meet you!" Isamu, Ren, and Maru exclaimed.
Sophie smiled, her smile turning into a light smirk as her eyes met Arashi's. The two bluenettes locked eyes for a few moments, giving each other knowing looks, then closed their eyes and looked away, leaving all of the bystanders rather confused.
"I will be waiting for you on the verandah with the others. Please, take your time resting from your journey." Sophie said, turning and disappearing inside.
"This way, please." The maids said, leading Galaxy Flame inside and to their rooms.
A couple of hours later, the group found themselves outside, facing the one and only Team Excalibur. Ren, Isamu, and Maru quickly became occupied gazing around at all of the manicured lawns and gardens, while Shinobu couldn't seem to get himself to stop repeating how much of an honor it was to meet the four young adults that had stood to greet them. Arashi had already maintained eye contact with each of them for at least thirty seconds, and had turned his attention to the group of teens playing a game on the lawn below.
"Those are your opponents for the next round, Team Chryasor." Julian said, following Arashi's eyes to the group.
"Should i go get them?" Klaus asked, getting up from his chair.
"Go ahead." Julian nodded.
Klaus quickly made his way down to the European team, and had them on the verandah just as the refreshments for the entire group arrived.
"Chryasor, this is Team Galaxy Flame from Japan, your opponents in the next round of the Wild Card matches." Julian introduced the two groups as Chryasor arrived.
"Welcome to Italy. I am Destiny Heart, team leader." a girl with brown eyes and red hair with black streaks introduced herself.
Maru, with some amusement, noted that Destiny looked a bit like Gingka himself, with her blazing hair, as the next team member introduced himself.
"I am Jonah Cross, the second regular." a boy with light brown hair and green eyes said calmly.
"Dennis Rawiel Haas, third regular." the other boy on the team, a dark chestnut-haired blader with a thick German accent said.
"Maristela Kishatu, sub member." the other girl of the team said, sounding mildly annoyed at her position as she brushed some of her long white and red hair out of her face.
"Nice to meet you all. I am Arashi Hikou, leader of team Galaxy Flame." Arashi said.
"Isamu Hikou, second regular."
"Shinobu Hiryuin, third regular."
"Ren Kurenai, sub." Ren sighed, sounding as annoyed as Maristela at her position.
"And I'm Maru, the mechanic for the team!" Maru spoke up happily.
"It will be an honor to battle you tomorrow." Dennis said.
"Likewise." Shinobu said politely.
"Please, sit down, all of you, and enjoy some refreshments." Sophie broke in.
The group chatted politely among themselves for the next few hours, until the sun had set. Excalibur amused themselves by pointing out a few similarities between some of the team members, such as Arashi and Dennis's near-identical scars, both on the left side of their faces, and both, apparently, caused by a bey. Shinobu and Jonah both had green eyes, and similarly-colored hair, although Shinobu's was lighter. By the time all similarities had been found out and compared, the group had finished with dinner, and had gone to bed.
Late that night, Ren and Destiny met each other on a balcony that they had discovered earlier, finding that it was a short walk around the corner from their rooms, if they climbed out their windows.
"Maru's asleep, and i don't want to wake her." Ren whispered as Destiny laid out a blanket on the shining tiles of the balcony.
"That's alright; i couldn't convince Maristela to come anyway." Destiny whispered back.
Ren giggled. "I feel like we're not supposed to be here, like we're sneaking out or something."
"Same here." Destiny chuckled. "Except that we're barely sneaking out our bedroom doors to meet each other here."
"And to do girly things that only we really get." Ren grinned, holding up a makeup bag.
Destiny grinned and opened up the box of nail polish that she had brought with her.
"Well then, let's get started!" Destiny said, pulling out a few colors as Ren held out her hand.
The two girls spent the next hour doing each other's nails and telling scary stories.
"And then, she went into the forest following her cat, despite all of the warnings her grandmother had given about the flesh-eating, laughing monsters that lurked at night. These monsters were huge, ten feet tall, and the trees were so thick that they couldn't walk without snapping branches off, as their big feet made thudding noises on the ground." Destiny said in a haunting voice as she and Ren hid underneath their blanket. Before the redhaired girl could continue, however, the two girls heard the very noises that Destiny had just described.
"I thought you said that this was just a fairytale that your grandma had told you when you were little!" Ren whispered, barely daring to peek out from underneath the blanket.
"It was, but we are surrounded by a dense forest. Those monsters can't actually exist, can they?" Destiny whispered back.
"I don't know." Ren whimpered slightly as more crackling noises came, seemingly getting closer and closer. The two girls huddled together, peering out from under their blanket, until a loud thud on the other end of the small balcony caused them both to scream and dive under the blanket, huddling together and squeezing their eyes tightly shut. They squeezed each other even tighter as an amused-sounding chuckle stole its way into their ears.
"Well, i thought i was the only one that had snuck out tonight, but apparently i wasn't." a somehow familiar male voice said quietly.
Ren and Destiny quickly flipped the blanket off their heads, a tick mark on both foreheads for a few seconds until they noticed just who was standing on the other end of the balcony, dusting himself off and untangling a long white strip of fabric from the vines that he had apparently been trying to climb until they pulled away from the side of the house.
"Y-You're…" Ren trailed off in shock.
"Yes, i am." Gingka replied, stepping back and examining the wall of the mansion in front of him.
"What are you doing here? Where's Zero?" Ren asked, suddenly remembering that Arashi had said that Gingka had rescued Zero.
"He's safe, don't worry about him." Gingka replied, turning around and examining the distance to the ground below.
"But where is he? Why hasn't he come back to see us yet?" Ren asked.
"He'll be back soon, i haven't let him come back into the spotlight yet to avoid the DNA targeting him a second time." Gingka replied, climbing up onto the railing.
"When? How will we know that he's coming back? How will you know when to bring him back?" Ren demanded.
"Two words:" Gingka said, pausing for a second and turning to grin at the blonde, his golden-brown eyes sparkling in the moonlight.
"Arashi Hikou."
Ren gasped. "Arashi? But how?" she demanded, but Gingka had already leapt off the balcony and landed safely on the ground below before running around the corner and disappearing from sight.
"Wait!" Ren called, running down the balcony steps and following, with Destiny close at her heels. By the time the two rounded the corner, however, Gingka had disappeared.
"Where did he go?" Ren asked, looking around but seeing nothing but a wide open lawn, with no trees and a long wall before the next corner.
"That window would have been his only option." Destiny pointed to an open window, which quickly slammed shut and locked before the curtains were pulled over it.
"That's probably where he went. That's pretty high up, but can we try to see what's inside?"
"He closed the curtains." Destiny reminded. "We can ask about what room that is in the morning."
"Yeah, i guess so." Ren sighed. "Thanks for hanging out, that was fun. I'll see you in the morning."
Chryasor's team leader smiled. "Thanks for coming. Goodnight."
"Come in." Julian said as a knock sounded on his office door.
Gingka quickly slipped in and quietly closed the door behind him.
Julian glanced up. "I thought you were going to come in the window as planned."
"Well, your little vine system didn't like me climbing it, unfortunately, and i got spotted."
Julian raised an eyebrow. "You got spotted? There aren't any bedrooms on that side of the house though!"
"Well no, but i scared two of the girls from our World Championships teams who were having a little girl party on the balcony." Gingka said, leaning against the wall casually.
"Ahh, i see." Julian chuckled.
Gingka grinned. "Luckily i left the window that got me out of the house wide open, and those vines did support me long enough to get away."
"Well, either way, you got here, the rest of the house is asleep, and we can talk about threats without too much fear of being overheard." Julian said, just as another knock came on the door.
"You were saying?" Gingka chuckled silently as he slipped behind a curtain hanging nearby.
"Come in." Julian said.
Immediately in response, Shinobu and Ren came in.
"You two sure are up late. Is something wrong?" Julian asked calmly.
Shinobu paused for a moment, looking confused.
"Ren said she saw Gingka climb into a window of the house and close it, and then we heard voices in here. She also said that he said something she wants to ask him about." the Salamander blader said slowly.
"I'm also wondering what room the window leads to." Ren said.
"What side of the house was it on?" Julian asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ren thought for a moment, then pointed. "First window on that side coming from the back, i think."
"That would be your teammates' room." Julian said.
"Arashi and Isamu?"
"Yeah, probably."
"That's logical…" Ren muttered, causing Shinobu to raise an eyebrow at her.
"You two should probably get some rest. Don't worry about Gingka, i already knew that he was here." Julian said.
"You did?" Ren looked surprised.
"Yes. He is here on an invitation, after all, but wanted to keep himself hidden. Just forget that you saw him and go to bed." Julian said, sounding a bit cold.
"Okay." Ren muttered, as Shinobu gently steered her towards the door.
"They got a bit more inquisitive than i expected. I thought Shinobu was asleep." Gingka said, stepping out from behind the curtain after the two had left.
"Perhaps she woke him up so that she wouldn't have to come alone." Julian yawned.
"That would be logical. I guess i should let you go to bed, and i should probably go to bed myself, since we both have to be alert for tomorrow's tournament." Gingka smiled, suddenly looking and feeling tired.
"Well then, i suppose I'll see you in the morning?" Julian said.
"Not likely. I'll be back in the shadows, so to speak, by then." Gingka replied. "Of course, you know who to go to if you need to reach me."
Julian grinned as he stood up and walked over to the door. "Well then, until next time."
"Naturally. Keep an eye out for the DNA." Gingka said, disappearing into the shadows of the hallway.