Chapter 7 - Change

Three Days Ago

Isha stared down at her hands that she had folded together in her lap, the silence of the room painful as both her and her son sat across from each other, a tension between them that they knew they had to discuss before anything else.
The lights in the room were dim, the curtains half-closed as it set a more comfortable setting for them to talk.
That is, if Isha could bring herself to look her own son in the eye after what he had brought up to her - something that she had wished to forget, but hadn't been able to for many years of her life, even as Hyoma was growing up and her priorities had to be focused on him.
Then again, she was one who knew very well that you couldn't run from your past forever; it would eventually catch up with you, but what happened after that was entirely up to yourself.
Only now, she had no mortal idea of what she was going to do, what she was going to say now that it had caught up with her all these years.
How was she going to explain anything to Hyoma? How was this all going to work out if she actually managed to? Millions of questions swarmed inside her head, her blue eyes seeming to have dimmed from their shining luster of their crystalline color as she stared down at her hands.

Yet with the questions, would eventually come the answers, as it was the way that the world worked.
Isha knew that Hyoma likely had a lot of questions, questions that he was waiting to ask her as soon as she was able to make eye contact with him, questions about the matter that he had brought before her that he wanted answered.
She knew there was no way she could lie, no way that she could squeeze her way out of this and try to move on with her life - she had been trying to forget about it for years now, throw it away and accept it as nothing more than the past that she shouldn't have to worry about now that it was all said and done.
But she couldn't do that.
She knew that Hyoma wouldn't let her, and now that he knew the truth, she knew that he had already backed her into a corner.
There was no one out of this, and Isha knew it perfectly well. After all, no one was able to run from the past forever, especially not when it was something like... Well, that...

"Mom."

Hyoma's voice broke the lavender-haired woman out of her thoughts, her blue eyes darting up to meet his as if she had forgotten entirely that he was there.
She was sitting stark still, the lighting in the room giving them a comfortable atmosphere with just the two of them, something that they could talk it.

"R-right.." Isha stuttered, pushing a strand of lavender locks out of her face and behind her ear, "What do you... Want to know?"
An awkward silence passed between mother and son, the room filled with tension as talking to one another had never felt this strangely uncomfortable. Of course it would, though.
Discussing this rather surprisingly matter with her son was not something that the woman had exactly practiced throughout her many years of parenting.
All Hyoma did, though, was stare at her for a few moments, blinking his bright blue eyes that were so much like her own, as if he were trying to tell her something through a telepathic link that they did not have.
Isha was about to speak again before Hyoma's voice broke the uncomfortable and tension-filled silence that surrounded them.

"Start at the beginning." The Aries Blader said, a firm tone in his voice as if to let his mother know that she couldn't hide anything from him - from his many years of deceiving people away from Koma Village, he had come to learn to tell when someone was lying or not telling the full truth.
The air was heavy with secrets, heavy with the tension that lay between mother and son who had never seemed more distant than they were now.
Isha licked her bottom lip, pursing them softly before letting out a soft breath and shakily nodding her head as she recalled everything as clear as if it had only been yesterday.
With something like that, and with how fast time had seemed to pass from all those years ago, it may very well have been.

"Okay." Isha agreed, and she began from the very start.

Present Day

Cerulean eyes gazed out upon the city from the hill that both Takanosuke and Sakyo stood on on the very outskirts of the city that they had agreed to leave behind in search for the one person that they did not want to be involved with ever again.
Sakyo had agreed with Takanosuke to go after the psychopath that they had very well both had enough of even with the short time they had known about him, though never did really say why as he knew that the blonde just really cared about his friends, a thoughtfulness about him that made him exceedingly pleasing to some people while his loudness was a bit revolting to others.
Sakyo honestly couldn't decide which side he liked Takanosuke for, but it wasn't like he was going to admit to him being anything more than a 'Synchrome Partner'.
Either way, the blonde seemed to be happy that he had agreed in the suggestion to go after Alcorin themselves, since they had no remote idea as to where Zyro and the others were at this point, since the B-Pit was evidently locked up and closed with apparently nobody currently inhabiting it.
With the unknowing of where exactly they were going to go, they had both decided on heading inland, perhaps towards Ibaraki which was west of Lake Hinuma.
They both packed very lightly, as neither of them really needed that much since they would hopefully be able to get from place to place within 2 days.

"Wow..." Takanosuke lamented as he looked over Metal Bey City on the hill they both stood on just on the outskirts, "It seems so small from over here. Which is kind of weird..."
Sakyo simply hummed in response, keeping to himself as they both prepared themselves to leave Metal Bey City.
They knew that would likely have to keep near the road, as they would have to go around Lake Hinuma to get to Ibaraki since there was no way across it for as well as they knew.
"Where do you think Zyro and the others are now, Sakyo?" The blonde boy asked, turning to look at the one that he called his friend, the other looking back at him with his one visible eye.
"Hmph.." The redhead grunted, looking out towards the city himself of which now seemed so small even from the small distance they were at, "I don't know. But that doesn't concern us. Whatever they're doing, they can do."
Takanosuke nodded in agreement, looking down towards the grassy ground that stood beneath him.
"Yeah, I guess so.." He said, "But still.. Maybe they're heading to Ibaraki too! I mean, we are all looking for Alcorin and stuff."
Sakyo did nothing, simply closing his eyes for a moment.
"I wouldn't get your hopes up." He said, before turning away from the city that had been home for a long time, and towards the road, "Let's go."

"O-okay!" Takanosuke hurriedly agreed, jogging a bit to catch up with Sakyo and his rather long strides, seeing as how he was taller than him.
Following the road definitely wasn't to hard, and if they knew their senses of direction and how to follow signs, than they would be able to make it to Ibaraki just fine in as little time as possible - however long it would take was a good question, though.
Even so, neither of them really cared how long it would take.
All they knew was that that psychopath did not deserve to still be walking the earth after all that he had done to Zyro and the others, as well as Gingka.
"Do you think we're really gonna find him, Sakyo?" Takanosuke asked, looking up towards the older male of who glanced down at him before looking forward once more.
"We'll see.." The Dragoon Blader said simply, "We can't say we'll find anything, but we'll know soon enough."
They barely even knew what they were supposed to be looking for. They knew that they were searching for Alcorin, wherever he was, but how they were going to find him was an entirely different story.
Zyro and the others would probably find something, as they likely had a plan with what they were going to do; Takanosuke and Sakyo, however, had barely thought about what they were going to do. But as Takanosuke had said to him: 'If you don't try, you'll never know'.
So, at least the blonde was on to something.

The gulls squawked down by the sea that would soon be walking away from in order to get to the town they planned to head to, the clouds minimizing their numbers so that they could allow the sun to peak through and warm the earth below it with the warmth of summer.
In all honesty, it was a rather perfect day for travelling - well, to Takanosuke it was.
The Griffin Blader in question followed silently by Sakyo's side, used to following his lead and trusting that he had a better sense of direction than he did.
But as they walked on for a short amount of time, the blonde got bored rather quickly with the silence that was between them, huffing softly before an idea came to mind.

"Wanna play I-Spy?" Takanosuke asked, a cheerful look on his face as he looked towards the Dragoon Blader with bright, hopeful eyes of cerulean.
Sakyo didn't respond at first as his one eye looked over to his one friend solemnly, before he sighed heavily in defeat.
"Sure..." He said.
This was going to be a long walk...

The worker that had been ordered by Director Hideyoshi had gladly lead Sichiro to the room where Ayano was, which had indeed been set up for them to both do what they had to do and what they had come here for.
Ayano currently had a tablet in front of her, and seemed to be checking some things while a rather high-tech computer system sat in front of her.
Sichiro would've been impressed from the design of it, but considering that this was the Tokyo WBBA, he kept all recognition of admiration hidden and buried.
At the sound of the automatic doors opening and closing, Ayano looked up from the tablet that she was sliding her fingers across, her cerulean eyes turning towards the door and greeting her colleague with a smile.

"Oh, there you are." She said, swiveling the chair towards him while she glanced down at the screen of the tablet in her hands, "Please tell me you didn't screw things up with the Director?" Swallowing the bile that had arisen in his throat, Sichiro simply shook his head at that question/plea, brushing part of his hair behind one of his ears.
"Uh, no..." He said, still stuck on his words as he felt nothing but uneasiness in being in this place, "It went fine.." Ayano nodded in approval at that and let her shoulders relax once more.
"Good." She responded, looking down towards the screen of the tablet and turning back towards the computer system that was already up and ready for them to work with, "I was just checking the levels of personnel on here."
Interested in getting his mind off of the now barely flickering lights and what had happened with Director Hideyoshi, Sichiro decided to try and take interest more in the job that they were sent here to do.
Trying to calm his tense self, the raven went up to the chair his colleague was sitting in and peaked over her shoulder.
"What does it say?" He asked, his voice stiff almost hollow as he asked, which Ayano didn't seem to notice from how caught up she was in their business.
"Well, it says here there's at least 3 levels of working personnel." Ayano explained, taping her finger on the screen and holding it there while dragging it to bring the page down or up, "Which is rather impressive, considering they have 539 staff."

"539?" Sichiro repeated as a question, an odd tone to the way that he asked as if he were wondering if that was actually enough, but Ayano simply nodded and brushed that aside.
"Yeah, but that's mainly just in the WBBA building itself." The greenette answered, "Believe me, Sichiro.. You probably see it because it's really dark outside right now, but this place isn't as tall as it is huge." Sichiro bent down a bit further, trying to see the screen with out getting in Ayano's way.
"How many departments do they own?" He asked, his interest seeming to be peaked a bit. Smiling, Ayano tapped the screen a few times before coming out with the answer.
"About 8." The greenette answered, continuing on with her analysis, "Like I said, they do own quite a few departments and such. I've never really been sure what all of them are, but I swear that one is a jewelry store."
Sichiro forced a small laugh at that, a slightly uncomfortable look still on his face just from knowing that he was even in this building at all.
Of course, it also came with what Ayano's answer had been to his question... All together, the Tokyo WBBA owned a total of 8 departments, companies, and facilities, so Ayano had just told him.

"Well, might as well let them do what they want." Ayano shrugged, setting the tablet to the side in case she needed it later, "Tokyo basically runs the Japanese government anyway, not like we can do anything."
Sichiro let out a shaky breath at that statement, biting his lip lightly with his hands behind his back, tugging at his fingers that were hooked around each other as to keep himself busy with something as the hairs on the back of his neck decided to stand up.
He knew that the Metal Bey City WBBA's surveillance systems were pretty high tech, with a lot of cameras tending to be just all over the place - and then there was the Tokyo WBBA, that obviously had a lot more power and authority over things than theirs did.
Sichiro right dearly not to think about it, but his mind tended not to listen to him a lot of the time.
"Well." Ayano said, sitting upright in her chair and pulling herself more to to the computer system, "Now that we have that, how about we get started?"
All Sichiro could do was agree to Ayano's words as she turned to the computer system that the WBBA workers had already had up and ready for them to use.
It was only then did the lights start flickering once more in an uneven pattern, not effecting the computer program or the rest of the electricity, though just flickering on and off constantly.

"Why do the lights keep doing that?" The greenette asked nobody, glancing up towards the ceiling with a raised eyebrow as the lights kept flickering within a few seconds of each other, "Something must be wrong with their Electricity Supply or something..."

"I'm sure they've got it handled.." Sichiro said reassuringly, but uneasily as he too glanced up towards the flickering lights with his steel grey eyes.
"Who knows..." Ayano sighed, and decided to get back to work, "Some pretty weird stuff happens around here, for as well as I know.. Well, it's not our problem."
Ayano shrugged dismissively and tucked a loose strand of green hair, typing her fingers across the keybaord as she brought up a very long list of the workers of the Tokyo WBBA workers with several categories displayed on the side could minimize the number.
"How are we gonna do this?.." The greenette wondered, tapping her finger on the table in thought before Sichiro spoke once more.
"Why not cut it down to levels of working personnel?" The raven suggested, "There isn't many of them, so you get larger numbers to profile rather than smaller numbers." With a small smirk on her face, Ayano glanced back towards her colleague with an impressed gleam in her cerulean eyes.

"Well, looks like your 8 years of working with us finally paid off." Ayano teased playfully, turning back to the screen and doing what he suggested with the categorization of the staff.
Sichiro's face went blank, his body still tense and refusing to relax as he took no comfort in any room of this huge building.
His throat felt dry and his chest was tight with the anxiety that pulled at him from even the thought of being in this place that he wished oh so dearly the Director had not sent him to.
He had been with the Metal Bey City WBBA for 8 years, and that much was definitely true - he had learned a lot of things and even worked his way up to being one of the several people at Director Tsubasa trusted the most.
However, in all that time, he wasn't sure he deserved to be as trusted as he was by the silver-haired man that he worked for, as there were many secrets hidden in his past that he wished to never bring to light again for as long as he had a say in the matter.
Nobody ever questioned where he came from, or anything remotely relating to his life before he had come to Metal Bey City, and he very much liked to keep it that way.

"Sichiro!" Said raven jumped at the sudden call of his name, and looked down towards the woman that was looking at him with a raised eyebrow - she looked like she may have called his name several times rather than just the once that he heard her.

"Are you okay?" Ayano asked, a worried look on her face, "You've been acting really weird ever since we got here, you've been spacing out a bit, and I'm starting to get a little freaked out by it."
For several moments, Sichiro had no idea what he was supposed to say to her, his mind struggling to go from point A to point B as he knew that he had to say something to her.
Blinking his steel grey eyes, the raven simply shook his head with a slightly apologetic expression.
"Sorry, I just have this thing with being away from home.." Sichiro answered while averting his eyes for a moment before looking back towards his worried colleague, "I'm fine, really." Ayano huffed through her nose, keeping her eyes locked on the raven for what seemed like a near eternity before she sighed and simply nodded.
"Okay." She replied, "I'll take your word for it... Now let's stop delaying, and actually get down to work." Sichiro could only nod in agreement as the greenette turned away away from him and back towards the computer where they would finally be able to get a bit of work done.
Well, hopefully, anyway...

Zyro, Madoka, and the others were soon walking through the outskirts of Mito on the sidewalk within the hour it had come into sights, taking no time to sit around and dawdle anymore as they knew very well they had things to do here.
They were now mainly relying on Maru's bracelet-map for guidance, as it was evident that Mito was a very big place, and very easily to get lost in if one didn't know their surroundings; of course, none of them even really knew the layout of the large city.
The outskirts - the suburban area - was quite what you would expect for something outside of a city like Mito.
Quiet but with several cars rolling by here or there, a few stores on several corners for neighborhood shopping that didn't require driving to the city, modest yet homely looking houses that could house just about anybody, quite subtle looking and a bit plain.
Of course, none of them really knew anything about Mito, and everybody always did say never to judge a book by its' cover - many of them had learned that for themselves, especially Zyro with how painful the processing of remembering such a thing from a few days ago was.

They had made that grave mistake when they had truly believed that Alcorin was Gingka - they would not make the same foolish fault here.
Yet now that they were in the city, they knew they had decisions to make about how they were going to search it if they were going to find anything.
With Maru's map showing where they were on the outskirts of Mito, they had all decided to use the Mitoshi Okushikaizukafureai Park as a small rest spot where they would figure out what they were going to do.

"The grass around here is really dry.." Shinobu noted as they all stepped into the park, several of them sitting down on the straw-like grass that had almost definitely seen better days than this.
Most of them stayed standing, while others sat down for a rest, yet they were all still on the small, cobblestone walkway of the park that lead to a small bridge that didn't really look necessary to be there.
"It's probably the heat.." Madoka responded, looking towards the light-haired blader for a moment before down towards the grass across the bench she was sitting on with Maru, "I don't think anybody really keeps the park grass watered anyway.. Either way, we gotta figure out what we're gonna do here."

"I still think we should split up and meet somewhere." Benkei suggested, shrugging his large shoulders, "We could cover more ground that way."

"And where would we meet up, exactly?" Kira questioned, perched on the arm of the bench with his legs crossed, "Because I don't think any of us really know anything about this place, let alone it's layout. Well, except the kid, here."
The pastel-haired blader gestured over to Maru with his head, glancing at her with his one eye over his shoulder. Whether or not Maru was bothered by the fact that Kira didn't call her by her name and instead just used the term 'kid' was unknown - and if she was, she didn't show it.
"Well, we could all just meet up at the first hotel in the phone book." Ren suggested, leaning over slightly while on the ground to look at them more clearly.
Raising an eyebrow, Kite looked over at the blonde girl with an almost unamused expression.
"Did you get that from Supernatural?" The brunette asked, his voice flat as he asked while when responded a grin.
"Yeah." She said in a tone that may have been another way of saying 'duh', "I love that show."

"Well, I guess that could be an option.." Madoka said, assuring that they were all thinking things over carefully, as they definitely needed to in this situation, "There are a lot of places that we could meet up at, but none of us even know where most of them are... Either way, we'd probably get lost here before anything else."
Zyro, who had remained silent for a good portion of time and was sitting on his hands for some reason, looked over towards the brunette with a solemn look on his face - an expression that usually remained there now as they had all noticed for the past few days.
"Well, maybe we should just take a chance and go for it." The ginger-ravenette suggested, much to everyone's surprise, "We'll never find out anything if we just sit here and try to make out plans that probably won't work.. Either way, it's Alcorin we're dealing with, so..."
Zyro's words trailed off into nothing, never finishing his sentence and slowly closing his mouth to fully break off what could've been said.

"'So', what?" Kira questioned, trying to urge the Fire Blader along into speaking and not just leaving off while he had no loss for words - honestly, it was still so pathetic to him how Zyro was acting.
Sure, he had let him sort of cry the first time, when he had told him what he had figured out with "Gingka", but that was because it definitely looked like he needed it. Now, he was acting roughly the same way he was during most of the week that Gingka was dying while comatose, and - in all honesty - Kira was not looking forward to putting up with that attitude again, despite the circumstances that all of this had done to the other.
Sky blue eyes looked at only one that was the color of Fool's Gold, letting out of a breath and looking away before answering/continuing what he was saying.

"It's Alcorin, so..." Zyro began, almost struggling to find the words but forcing them out of him as best as he could, "So... Plans might not even work, knowing how he works."
Kira barely nodded, satisfied that Zyro had finished his sentence rather than just let trail off and have the rest of them just feel sympathetic for him.
As much as the kid irritated the hell out of him, at least he wasn't naive, unlike Arrow back in Metal Bey City who evidently was too lacking of judgement for his own good.
"Hey!" Maru suddenly exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention towards her, "I'm getting a call from Tsubasa!"
At this, most of the bladers who had been sitting on the ground perked up, and went behind the bench to see what was happening.
Zyro stood up from where he was sitting as well to go over and see what the Director had in store for them - hopefully he might've been a bit more successful in a couple days than they had been so far in getting here in the first place.

..Zyro...

Zyro's heart stopped almost mid-beat.

Everyone around him seemed to freeze as a faint, small voice entered from the back of his skull, unable to tear away from it and only able to listen to the small voice that he had heard so many times, and had dearly hoped would go away.

..Zyro... Please...

Time around him seemed to stop, or at least slow as the small, delicate voice in his head seemed so much weaker than before, almost desperate like someone who was in a holding cell and pleading to be let free.
His breath was shallow, trying to listen and hear the voice that called out to him at this moment - but now, it was far more faint and weak than ever.

..Please... Come to... Please..."

Whatever spoke inside his head seemed to become distant, as if fading away into the small breeze that blew through the outskirts of Mito and allowed them all a little relief from the heat of summer, almost as if it wanted him to follow it somewhere, or as if it were fading away and calling out to the first person it could speak to through some unknown means that was filled with emotions of sorrow, grief, remorse, almost reflecting Zyro's own like he and it were part of the same thing.
'Come to...' it had said, but had never finished what it was saying, with a missing 'me' or something else trailing off the end, calling out to him through the supposed attempt of an escape from something else.
And, with some sort of natural and connected feeling coming from it, Zyro listened.

The rest of the 8 others were all at the bench that Madoka, Maru, and Kira were sitting on, the younger bladers coming up behind the bench and looking over Maru's shoulder at the screen that she had protruding from the bracelet Tsubasa had given her.
A small light on Maru's bracelet was blinking red, at the same time, something in the corner of the map she had up was blinking red as well; seeming to know what she was doing, Maru tapped just above the holographic screen on the blinking alert, which brought up a different screen containing Tsubasa's well present face, which was a sight for sore eyes.
"Hey, how's it going with all of you?" The Director greeted, a pleasant smile on his lips as he saw most of them on his screen back at the WBBA building.
"Hey, Tsubasa." Madoka greeted as well, "What are you calling for?"

"I was calling to see where all of you are right now." The silverette responded, brushing part of his bangs out his face only for them to fall back into place in vain, "Somewhere near Mito, I'm hoping?" Ren, who had been on the first to get up and behind the bench, smiled at this question and answered it herself.
"If 'somewhere near' counts as one of its' parks, than yeah, we're pretty near." She said with an energetic smile. A small chuckle protruded from Tsubasa's throat, a slightly relieved look on his dark features.
"That's good to hear." He responded, "I actually thought it would've taken you longer than that."

"Believe us, so did we." Madoka commented with a weary smile on her face, the small bags under her eyes present from not being too far away from the screen as she was just beside Maru - it could only be guessed that she wasn't getting to much sleep after hearing about their unknown failure to save Gingka, "We just got here, actually, so we haven't scouted out anything yet... What about you?"
At that question, Tsubasa appeared to look at something off to the side, the sound of something sliding as his arm moved coming from the other side of the screen - though they were unable to see what it was, due to the restricted size of their communication.
"I've got a few things back from the colleagues I sent to Niigata." Tsubasa asked, "But as far as I've been able to check, there's nothing here that could be of use to us to trying to find Alcorin.. I should be getting a few things back from those I sent to Sendai, so I'll let you know if I find anything." Finally, Tsubasa's golden eyes looked back towards the screen, a grave-looking expression on his face, "Remember to be careful while you're there. There's no telling what could happen, at the rate things are..." Madoka smiled in response.
"Don't worry, we will be." Said the brunette, "Especially after what happened last time..."

"And how as Zyro been doing?" Tsubasa asked, his voice laced with concern as they all evidently remember Zyro's previous state, which had even been worse that Madoka's once she had reluctantly come to realize Gingka's demise as truth.
With her, there had been tears, but there had been anger than sorrow - sorrow, yes, but the anger towards Alcorin washed over that and told her that she would have time to grieve, but that they couldn't let that psychopath get away with all of his wrong-doings.
Zyro, though just as angry with Alcorin as they all were, had been more tears than anything else as the overwhelming anxiety of failure had almost had him break down, as Shinobu had seen.

"Um..." Madoka hummed, unsure of exactly how to answer as her turquoise eyes wandered off to the side, "He's kind of right here... Wait, no he's not.." Glancing around, they found that - indeed - Zyro was nowhere to be found in their group of 9-turned-8.
As it stood, none of them had seen Zyro leave - and they also had no idea where he could've gone when he was just there not even a few minutes ago.
"So he took off on us in his 'poor, vulnerable state of sorrow'.." Kira concluded in a rather melodramatic way before sighed irritably and rolled his only eye, ".. Drama queen.."

"You're a drama queen." Shinobu retorted poorly, having found no better words to currently use other than that; after all, it was quite true..
"You're right, I am a queen." Kira sassed back with a small smirk of his purple-coated lips, which made Shinobu look like he was about to tackle the pastel-haired blader to the ground at any moment.
"I'll... Go look for him." Ren suggested, eyeing Kira and Shinobu warily as she passed and hurried along the beaten path, her shoes echoing loudly from beneath the wooden bridge that still didn't seem too necessary - it wouldn't have been if it weren't for the sudden dip that the ground did below it.
Whatever would happen between Shinobu and Kira, and what happened with the rest of the conversation with the Director would be temporarily unknown to Ren as she made her way along the park path - the park itself wasn't too big, so as long as Zyro was likely still within its' boundaries, it wouldn't be hard to find him. Her brown eyes darted this way and that, searching for any sign of the Fire Blader who had just decided to take off on them for some unknown reason that he would definitely have to explain.

"Zyro!" Ren called out, bringing a gloved hand to her mouth to made her voice travel in case he would answer, "Where are you?"
The blonde hurried along the path, her pace no faster than a small jog as she searched for her friend. "Zyro!" She called out again, heading along the curved path until she came to almost the exact opposite side of the park of where she knew that Shinobu and the others were sitting - and that's where she saw him.
"Zyro!" Ren exclaimed, hurrying up the Fire Blader who sat cross-legged in front of the pond that was - strangely - shaped like a foot, his face blank of emotion as he rocked back and forth slightly while staring aimlessly out across the very small body of water - almost like a small child that had never seen a pond before, which was awfully strange.
"Zyro?" Ren questioned, her voice filled with concern for the friend who's burning fire was there, but only a small flame lit on a candle, and not yet the roaring inferno that they always knew, "Are you okay?"
Zyro visibly bit his bottom lip, the small remnants of tears lacing his eye lashes as they fought to escape.

He didn't answer.

Ren, her thoughts only focused on the other, went and sat down, cross-legged, beside him, tilting her head forward a bit to get a better look at him.
"Zyro?" She asked again, causing the Fire Blader to glance over at her with now sky blue orbs before looking downwards a bit.
"Sorry." Was all that came from Zyro's mouth, his voice cracked slightly, subdued in a way that was unbearably painful to hear - it shouldn't be that way.

His eyes should be burning with determination, his aura should be evident, almost painfully, around him as he pushed them all forward with his confidence that told them they would find Alcorin, his posture should be powerful, determined, lacking doubt, his voice should be loud and upbeat, his tone should be optimistic and telling them that they could do this and they would win against Alcorin in this round.

Where did all of that go?

How did the outgoing, energetic, determined boy that she knew and cared about be reduced to this in a matter of 2 weeks?

Now that she thought about it... Why was she the one who was trying to keep them all optimistic when that was usually Zyro, and sometimes Takanosuke who wasn't with them?

Why was Shinobu the one that was trying to keep a bit of conversation going from time to time when he was usually so quiet?

Why was Maru now one of the soul leaders of the group when she was the one that usually followed?

Why was Madoka now so seemingly tired when she had always seemed to be up and ready for just about anything that came her way?

They had all been through a lot since they had all met each other, especially with the DNA and Neo Battle Bladers - but all of them had come out there with new allies and friends, new teammates and new victories, and, most importantly, a new and bright future ahead of them all.

What was it about what happened with Alcorin that made all of that seem to come crashing down into a pile of ash?

What was it about him, of all people, that made most of them change so drastically?

"Why'd you run off like that?" Ren asked out of concern, "And how'd ya do it without any of us seeing you?" In response, Zyro gave a small shrug of the shoulders and looked up, gazing at the water that was as black as his hair.
"I don't know.." He said, almost simply, "I just kind of... Did, I guess. I heard something, like someone was calling me, and..."

"You decided to follow it?" Ren questioned, practically finishing his sentence for him. The Fire Blader nodded, and continued on with his explanation that he almost seemed to struggle with.
"I don't know what's wrong with me." He admitted suddenly, which to the blonde's surprise, "I keep hearing voices in my head, and they tell me to do things, and I keep trying to listen to them, and I don't know why I'm hearing them." Zyro bit the inside of his lip for a moment before shaking his head, "I'm not crazy, I swear, I just... I just keep hearing things."
Ren's eyes stood wide at this statement, unsure of what to make of it as her memories suddenly flashed back to what had happened in her battle with Genjuro in the Bridge To The Future Tournament.

Voices... Hearing things...

Ren had always sworn she was crazy since that day - but seemingly not.

"I don't think you're crazy." The blonde said reassuringly. Zyro sighed, shaking his head slightly as he wiped at his eyes that had earned enough rough treatment over the last couple days.
"I can't get over it..." Zyro said, his voice shaking as he cursed at himself silently for even wiping at his eyes where tears wished to gather, "I keep telling myself that it won't matter, but it does..."

"What is it?" Ren asked, trying to ease Zyro's way through his explanation - it was hard with him, as she had never had to do so before. Her older sister had always been the one who had been doing that to her, never really the other way around.
But those times were in the past, seeing as how Ayumi had moved away to South Korea for her job, and aside from phone calls and video messages, there was little communication between the two.
Instead, Ren just decided to listen as best as she could - that was what friends do, right?

"I couldn't realize that that wasn't Gingka..." Zyro hissed out, his emphasis on the one word sickening and full of a bitter distaste - it wasn't really like him, "And I know I shouldn't be blaming myself, but I can't help it.."
Ren's brown eyes softened towards the other blader, and with a gentleness that came even through her nature, she placed a hand on Zyro's shoulder, which the Fire Blader didn't protest to.
"Well, it's only been 3 days." Ren said, trying her best to comfort the other blader even though she knew she might not be able to make things better, "Don't pressure yourself too much... Besides... Once we're done with the guy, he's gonna be wishing he never set foot in Metal Bey City!"
A small smile graced Zyro's lips at that statement, his eyes showing that he did want to believe that, but another part of him saying that this may all be for naught as well.
"Yeah, I guess..." The Fire Blader said, his expression soft with a small flickering in the depths of his soul. Ren smiled a bit, before leaning in and placing a small peck of a kiss on Zyro's nearest cheek - she giggled when she pulled away as his expression morphed into one of embarrassment, a light pink blush lining the bridge of his nose and around his cheek bones. She had only kissed Zyro one other time, which had indeed been a simple peck on the lips, but it amused her to no end to seem him look all flustered when she did.
"Come on, Zyro." Ren urged, standing up from her sitting position and holding out a hand to her friend as an offer to help him up, "Let's get back to the others before Kira and Shinobu start tearing each other apart."
A small smile crossed Zyro's face, and - though he may not have needed to at all, and simply so out of gratitude - took Ren's hand, though he lifted himself up more so than she helped him.

"Okay.." He agreed, the shadows and ghosts of his previous self-pity and grief still clinging on to the edges of his slightly brightened mood, but not enough to subdue it again.
Their decision made, both Zyro and Ren made their way back down the short, cobblestone path that would lead them back to the others, who had even been visibly present from where they had been - hopefully Shinobu and Kira weren't at each other's throats by now.
But even as the breeze let on a coolness in relief to the hot summer warmth, Zyro's mind flickered back to the voice that had spoken in his head, had pleaded to him vaguely for him to do something, for him to 'come to' someone or somewhere, but never knowing what from the failure of it being able to finish its' sentence.
But now, the very same voice that had been in the back of his head throughout most of the week that Gingka had been comatose had dimmed, faded, been subdued far beyond what it had originally had been - even now its' voice seemed have been strained as it called out to the Fire Blader that could feel the presence of it slowly fading.

Though as strange as it may seem - it made him feel more empty.