Siruba Tsubasa presents...

The Origins of the Innocence, a Bakugan Battle Brawlers and D. Gray-man crossover fanfic

Siruba Tsubasa does not own Bakugan Battle Brawlers or D. Gray-man...if she did, Shun would have never cut his hair in New Vestroia

Please R&R

Shun jumped from branch to branch in the forest, staying on each one for barely a second before jumping onto another. His ankle had healed after a week or so, and his grandfather had wasted no time in setting up a training schedule for him. The pain of losing his mother had faded into a dull ache, and the events of that night, with the fat man and the artificial skeleton, had become a mere memory. Skyress rode on Shun's shoulder as he trained in the forest. The two had grown closer as she helped him recover from the loss of his mother, and now Shun viewed her as sort of a surrogate mother.

Shun glanced at Skyress briefly to make sure that she hadn't fallen off his shoulder somewhere as he leapt towards another branch. They rarely spoke to each other when Shun was training: both knew that Shun needed to concentrate fully on the task at hand if he wanted to complete it unscathed (Shun had accidentally slammed his head into a tree branch when he was chatting with Skyress once during training). Despite the fact that there was not much difference between Skyress being with him and Skyress not being with him, Shun still brought Skyress along to training. He took comfort in her presence, and liked knowing that he wasn't alone.

Skyress gasped suddenly and began glowing. Shun landed on a branch and took her off of his shoulder. "Skyress, are you okay?" he asked, cradling her in his hands.

"That feeling…it's so ominous…like something bad is going to happen…" Skyress murmured. "Like what I felt when that thing was there."

Shun narrowed his eyes. "That thing? Why don't we check it out, Skyress? Which way?" Skyress was silent for a moment, and then turned towards the way they were going.

"That way." Shun took off in that direction.

Shun continued his tree-jumping training, occasionally pausing to ask Skyress if they were still going in the right direction. After a while, there was no need to even asked: Skyress grew increasingly uncomfortable the further they went.

Eventually, the pair reached a clearing in the forest. It was empty except for a man dressed in a suit, who was just standing there, looking at nothing in particular. Shun landed on a branch on one of the trees surrounding the clearing.

"I don't know about you, Skyress, but I don't see anything that resembles that mechanical skeleton," Shun whispered to Skyress.

"I don't either. But the feeling is still there. And it's strongest over here," Skyress murmured. Shun looked over the clearing one more time. It'd be a nice place to go for some alone time…

"The man…doesn't he look out of place?" Shun asked.

"Yes, but there's nothing truly dangerous about a man being out of place in a clearing," Skyress answered.

Suddenly, the man fixed his gaze on Shun. "Human…" he hissed. "So…hungry…Starving…LET ME KILL!" Shun stiffened at those words.

The man exploded out of his clothes, and turned into a large, egged shaped thing with tubes protruding from the body. The man's face had turned into an eerie mask, but its gaze was still focused on Shun. This is bad…this is bad…I should run… But Shun was frozen in fear as the man, who, despite being slightly out of place, was perfectly normal, transformed into this…thing.

The thing fired off a round of bullets in his direction, and Shun realized that the tubes were cannon-like structures of some sort. He jumped off the branch to avoid the bullets. It fired off bullet after bullet, and Shun did all he could to dodge them. Shun looked up as a stray bullet hit a bird flying through the clearing. Horrified, he watched as black pentagons appeared all over the bird and it exploded into the dust. He dodged the bullets even more desperately now.

"Skyress…what do we do?" he panted. There was no answer. "Skyress?" He looked towards his shoulder, where Skyress was the last time he checked. She wasn't there. "Skyress!" he yelled desperately.

"Shun!" He looked for the source of the voice. There she was! He must have dropped her when he was evading the bullets. He ran towards her, but backed away when bullets rained down in front of him. Back…back… the thing began forcing him towards the edge of the clearing. Shun stared, horrified, as he realized that he had backed into a tree. Frozen with fear as the thing approached him, he closed his eyes and shouted the only thing that came to his mind.

"VENTUS SKYRESS, STAND!"

When Shun cautiously opened his eyes, he found Skyress, in her phoenix form, hovering in front of him, and the thing quite a distance away.

"I guess this means that we should try what we did last time?" Shun asked. Taking the slight nod that Skyress gave him as agreement, Shun took an ability card out of his pocket. "Green Nobility Violent Wind!" Like the last time, a green-tinted wind blew around the thing, but instead of causing it to blow up, it faded away, leaving the thing unscathed. "What…?" Shun stared in shock. The thing took the momentary distraction and fired a bullet at Shun. It hit Skyress instead, and in a bright flash, she returned to her ball form and rolled towards Shun. Shun picked her up. "Are you okay, Skyress?"

"I'll be fine…WATCH OUT SHUN!"

Shun looked up in time to see a lot of bullets flying towards him. He jumped out of the way just in time. "What do you think we should do, Skyress?"

"What can we do but try again? It'll obviously follow us if we run."

"But you got hurt the last time…wait, what if we use more ability cards this time?" Shun asked.

"It's worth a try."

Shun tossed Skyress as if he was in a brawl. "Ventus Skyress, stand!" Skyress turned into her phoenix form, and the thing stopped the hail of bullets. It focused its attention on Skyress, almost as if it was judging her. It got ready to fire again, but Shun was faster.

"Wind of Fury!" The thing jerked back, almost as if it was hurt, and when it began moving again, it was slower. Shun looked at the next card.

"Blow Away!" A powerful wind began glowing in the clearing, and there was a sickening crack as it slammed into a tree.

"Green Nobility Fire Storm!" Skyress glowed green as she felt her strength increase.

"GREEN NOBILITY VIOLENT WIND!" The wind took on a green tint and began surrounding the thing, hiding it from view. BAM! It exploded, sending shards flying everywhere. Skyress turned back into a ball, and bounced into Shun's hand.

"Well…that certainly was interesting," Skyress commented as they made their way back through the forest to the dojo.

Shun just groaned. "I missed the majority of my afternoon training. Grandpa's going to kill me…"

Well...

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for going for such a long time without an update. I truly am.

Well, now that I am back: I already have an idea of what I'm going to do for the next chapter, so hopefully it'll be up soon. And it's summer vacation, so I have more time to write.

Special Sankyus to Danyeda Goofy Panterita, YoruichiKittyCat16, and Wolfi-Chan, who reviewed my previous chapter.

TRIVIA TIME!

Skyress' Japanese voice actor is...?

WHEN REVIEWING: NO FLAMES, PLEASE!